My Review of Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"

My last few posts have been book and movie reviews. For a long time I wasn't as active in watching movies and reading books as I have been the past several months or so, and you'll probably be seeing some more of these in the near future.


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus boasts quite the lineup -  it's directed by Terry Gilliam, stars Tom Waits as the devil (or a kind of devil), Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, appearances by Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law. Performances by newcomers Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole are what stole the show for me though. This movie has so much going for it - an amazing cast and crew, fantastic cinematography, scenery, surreal effects, costumes, it is masterful in many ways. Unfortunately the storyline falls apart at the end which can be somewhat understood because of the demise of actor Heath Ledger. I am not sure though, how this storyline could of been summed up in a satisfactory way, had Ledger been there until the end.

Don't get me wrong, the story line of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is incredibly intriguing, but quite incomplete and a bit incoherent at times. The story is basically that there are two old kind of friends or adversaries depending on how you look at it; the Devil and Plummer's character Dr. Parnassus. The devil tries to show that ignorance is bliss, temptation can't be avoided, etc etc. while Parnassus tries to show that the power of the imagination can overcome everything, despite the fact the he himself has fallen into the devil's traps more than once in his long life. What's interesting though is that the way the story is presented, it seems to me that "Dr. P" would not have advanced his philosophy at certain points in his life without the interference of the devil.

 ''People on the outside go, 'Oh, he's a mad genius and nobody understands what he's thinking, nothing could be further from the truth — he's so good at communicating."      

-Matt Damon on Terry Gilliam, Entertainment Weekly Aug. 2005

Dr. P has a kind of small travelling mesmerist show that operates out of what appears to be a magical caravan. Inside the caravan is his "Imaginarium"; which is a place that, once you walk through it's door, feeds on your dream-power and off of Dr. P's mind. Some of the sequences inside the Imaginarium are quite fantastic, breathtaking even, and does maybe the best job I have ever seen of a movie portraying the dream state. This movie really does make you think, presenting many philosophical starting points and boasting an amazing cast and cinematography. But that's the problem. It only presents the starting points for conversations and doesn't take it much further. It's like an amazing lecturer who starts out with several great points and that just stops his lecture and walks away.

There are too many holes in the storyline and too much information left out to make it a complete movie. I still highly recommend you see it though, for the reasons I mentioned above - the dream sequences, the cast, the costumes, the cinematography - all are exquisite.