In theaters January 8, 2009
Rating: PG-13, Fantasy
When Heath Ledger passed away during the production of Terry Gilliam's latest film, the director had to challenge his own considerable resourcefulness to finish the project.
So he called on three Hollywood heavyweights -- Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell - to play Ledger's character as they finished the revamped shoot of the fantasy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Because there are parallel universes involved in the supernatural story, the three stars were able to step in and play different versions of Tony, the Heath Ledger character, as he moves from universe to universe.
The good-versus-evil plot, set in contemporary London, is complicated on its surface, but boils down to an old chestnut: a guy makes a deal with the devil and sells his soul.
Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, is that guy, a performing conjurer headlining a horse-drawn traveling caravan that features a magic mirror that anyone who passes through gets to experience another dimension of their own mind.
Or something like that.
Anyway, now the title character has got to save his daughter Valentina, played by Lily Cole, from the terms he agreed to a thousand years ago with the Prince of Darkness, played by Tom Waits, selling his soul and that of his soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old daughter in exchange for his own immortality.
The devil offers to cancel the deal if Parnassus can lure five souls into his through-the-looking-glass imaginarium as part of a replacement wager. And Ledger plays Tony, a con artist of indeterminate allegiance who joins the show and agrees to help Parnassus outfox the devil.
Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Fisher King), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Charles McKeown, gives us the expected outlandishly magical realm. But, as has been the case in some but certainly not all of Gilliam's works, there is just no entry point: the audience hardly seems part of the viewing formula of the flagrantly self-indulgent TIODP.
Completely uninvolving, it's an infuriating work of sound and fury and color, signifying very little. Moreover, even allowing for the production problems created in the wake of Ledger's death, Gilliam seems out of control, as if this were his first work rather than one produced well into his career.
His imagination is certainly on display, but neither his judgment nor his discipline nor his storytelling ability put in even a token appearance. And, needless to say given the impressive cast list, there's a lot of performing talent being wasted. Which is part of the reason why the film seems interminable.
It has curiosity value, to be sure, as it features the last role of Heath Ledger, whether impressive or not. But there's little else that compels in any way.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a dreadful and regretful bundle of what Terry Gilliam undoubtedly perceives as organized chaos celebrating the power of imagination. For us, this is another reminder that you don't have to get anywhere near Las Vegas to experience fear and loathing.
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Source:XMB