This past Saturday, I was wandering about in downtown Philadelphia. I bought tickets for a movie, enjoyed a beer, and then two hours of my life disappeared in a cataclysmic event that I can only attribute to the random, staggering madness of Mr. Terry Gilliam.
Upon viewing the trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I was intrigued—but not convinced. I’ve only had a few precious memories of Heath Ledger and I didn’t want to disrupt the waters. From medieval knighthood, to the Joker, to butt-fucking Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath had a pretty full range of roles before he died. I was over it; I didn’t need any more.
While there is no danger in Heath being remembered for his part in The Imaginarium, it certainly doesn’t help matters.
I wish his death were this cool and mysterious...
The movie’s plot—which I had to rely on others to describe for me—is about an immortal travelling showman and gambling addict who makes a deal with the devil, Mr. Nick, to save his daughter. Sound pretty simple? Let’s dig deeper.
Doctor Parnassus (Chris Plummer) obtained immortality via a bet with the Devil/Mr. Nick (Tom Waits). As an old man, he meets his true love, a younger woman. He makes another deal with Mr. Nick to become young again to score with this chick.
The devil grants his wish, but in return, he must give the devil his first daughter when she turns 16. His wife dies during childbirth and his daughter is rapidly approaching that ripe age when the devil comes knocking again. This time, he offers Parnassus another wager: whoever can obtain 5 souls first, gets the girl. Still sound simple?
Oh, did I mention that Dr. Parnassus has a travelling show that contains an “Imaginarium?”—it’s a door that leads whoever enters to a crazy animated world that exists within Parnassus’ imagination(?)…maybe?
Throw in Heath Ledger as the shady nice-guy Tony…then add Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law as Heath Ledger’s character.
All of the actors in this film contributed so much, which deserves to be applauded because this film made no fucking sense. In that sense, it wasn’t a “bad movie”…but it was an extremely weak narrative.
Writer/Director and Monty Python alumn Terry Gilliam (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm) seems to have consistent problems while making films. He had been attempting a film version of The Man of La Mancha called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote for quite some time with no luck whatsoever. He is making another attempt for 2011.
When Ledger died 1/3 of the way through shooting The Imaginarium, he refused to back down—but maybe this was an omen. Perhaps some supernatural force was just trying to say, “Fuck it. Just tell a story for once.”
While it is clear that Gilliam fights an uphill battle to bring movie-watchers something new, intriguing, and spectacular, he has had very limited success after the Monty Python train left the station.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was a ride—not necessarily a fun ride—but a ride, nevertheless. It was puzzling, frustrating, and way-drawn-out…with just enough quirky and funny bits to keep me interested. I enjoy when films are weird for the sake of being weird, but when a movie comes into your house, takes a shit on your rug, sings a song, draws a silly picture and whistles as it hops away, all you’re left with is a pile of poop and a very definitive, “What the fuck just happened?”
(return to MAIN PAGE)
I still don’t know what the fuck it was about. All I remember was sitting in a whiskey scented theater, eating my Toblerone (because I’m a classy caliber of a gent!) and coming out of the theater 2 hours later. That’s it. I remember people moving and talking on this screen contraption but I’m not sure. I’m glad you bought my ticket Alex.
Good points, I think I will definitely subscribe! I’ll go and read some more! What do you see the future of this being?
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yeah the movie made absolutely no sense and wasted a part of my life that i’ll never get back……
second comment because i forgot to subscribe. but ur description was better than the movie
Just because your mind has the inability to fully comprehend a visually stunning, modern twist on a mixture of fairy tale and fable, doesn’t make it a bad movie, it just takes more study and appreciation of art direction and a love for the story it tells. Not an ability to get it, it’s really not quite difficult to understand, go watch a Serious Man. This is directed towards Zach ^, your review was actually alright even if you based it’s quality on your confusion
ahahahah you are a fucking moron,you don’t understand anything
the sex in bbm was fake jackass
Dear Nannynooni,
Sometimes people will write, say, or act something out that they know is a fabrication (or not 100% true to reality) just to achieve the ultimate goal of evoking an emotional response, preferably laughter (whether on the exterior or interior).
This is called humor, or irony in some cases.
If you’d like to carry on thinking that I’m some sort of homophobe who doesn’t know the difference between a movie and reality, please go on being blissfully and arrogantly wrong.
Thanks for reading the blog though! I think we should be friends.
This movie is beautiful. There is amazing acting. I don’t really need it to make sense, but it makes sense to me. It makes sense that it makes no sense. In an “Alice in wonderland” sort of way. It’s just a dream, but it’s very much reality, in a metaphorical way.
Cant you see that the movie was made with a “weak narrative” so you can come up with your own ideas of what it was about? You get to contemplate what the fuck just happened, which is lost with movies today that just show you guns and titties (not a big problem).