The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Last night I watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and very much enjoyed it. spoiler alert! do not read if you do not want some of the movie ruined for you.

It is from the creative mind of Terry Gilliam, director of Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and a member of Monty Python. The movie has a good plot and great visuals, and is also interesting for the morbid reason that it was Heath Ledger's final film. He died about a third of the way through filming, and Gilliam thought that it would never be finished. But alas, it did, and it works.

The movie pits Dr. Parnassus, played by Christopher plummer against Mr. Nick (the devil) played superbly by Tom Waits. As the story unfolds we see that Parnassus is a member of a travelling sideshow, literally a single mobile show. Also in his troupe are the dwarf Percy (Verne Troyer), magician Anton (Andrew Garfield), and Parnassus' daughter Valentina (Lily Cole).

Ledger thickens the plot by playing Tony, a mysterious stranger that the crew finds hanging under a bridge. Tony claims not to remember anything and appears to be hiding something. He joins the troupe but under the watchful eyes of Parnassus and Anton.

The plot hinges around repeated bets between Parnassus and Mr. Nick and the revelation that one such bet was that any child of Parnassus, the devil will own when they turn 16. Valentina just happens to be turning this age in a few days, and the devil is back to collect. Being a sporting man, the devil wagers Parnassus one last bet - "first one to five souls collected" wins.

Parnassus has a prop mirror which acts connects to his subconscious and creates a dream landscape for anyone who enters through the mirror. Once inside, they are free to choose the easy route (the devil) or the harder route (Parnassus).

The movie is visually stunning, and Gilliam enlisted Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrill to finish Ledger's parts. You might think this would be disastrous, but it is done in a way where if you did not know that Ledger died during the movie, you might not know that it was reworked.

As a final note, when I say visually stunning, it is, but it is nothing like Avatar in 3D which is just incredible. However, it is a much better movie overall, with solid plot and just under two hour runtime. Once Avatar is out of theatres, I would recommend this movie over it to anyone.