Reader Review: 'Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Starring Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, and Lily Cole Directed by Terry Gilliam Rated PG-13 Review by Gordon Gravy

Hey Big Picture Readers, It’s Gordon Gravy here with a special review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a movie Colin Boyd didn’t have time to see. And I’ll tell you what: You might not have time to see it, either. Yep, this movie is nearing the end of its theatrical run because you all decided to give your money to James Cameron and see Avatar. Well, if you have a few bucks left over, or just cashed in some aluminum cans or something, you should definitely consider tossing some coin Terry Gilliam’s way. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Just like that overblown epic starring a bunch of computer generated blue-people, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus was meant to be seen on the big-screen. Maybe not IMAX-big, because you would surely see how miniscule the effects budget was, but definitely something bigger than your reasonably large 1080p plasma television at home. Director Terry Gilliam, back in fine form after the studios pasteurized him a few years ago, packs the “worlds” of his movie with just as much spectacle as Pandora and even gives his contemporary Tim Burton a run for the money, especially when it comes to oddity-factor. The first of two universes represented in this movie is “the real world”, dark and dirty as it is. This is where our protagonist, an aging Dr. Parnassus, finds himself surrounded by those who depend on him. People like his daughter Valentina (played by the unbelievably scrumptious Lily Cole), or his jesters Anton and Percy (the latter a dwarf played by Verne Troyer of Austin Powers fame). They are a rag-tag bunch of gypsies passing from town to wretched town in their ancient horse drawn carriage hoping to make a few bucks here and there by entertaining the local drunks leaving the bars at night. Ironically, Parnassus is himself a drunk, self-medicating to escape some unspoken burdens leaving the rest of his troupe to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the performing. Consequently, they are booed out of town more often than they find cash paying customers, and the little audience they are able to scrape up hardly realizes that stashed on board this rickety carriage is a mirror that has magical powers; it acts as a portal into the good doctor’s mind, a place where imagination runs wild and he is not effected by age or drink.

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Terry Gilliam on Heath Ledger and 'Doctor Parnassus'

Pop quiz, hot shot: Who's older, Terry Gilliam or MTV's Kurt Loder? It's Gilliam, by a handful of years, but Loder's certainly blown out his share of candles, too. Anyway, that quiz is slightly germane to our topic here because Loder sat down with Gilliam to talk about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the new film out in selected cities now.

Gilliam opens up - not for the first time - about the passing of Heath Ledger and the impact it had on him personally and professionally, since Ledger's death occurred during the production of Parnassus. The original plan, of course, was to have Ledger play his character, Tony, throughout the film, but Colin Farrell, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp filled in to help Gilliam keep the production on course. "We hadn't got the stuff on the other side of the mirror done. But the principle was already there: If you go through the mirror with somebody else — their imagination being stronger than yours — then you might start looking different," Gilliam says. "I just took that to an extreme."

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A New Batch of 'Doctor Parnassus' Character Posters

After nearly two years, we'll finally get to see Heath Ledger's final performance in Terry Gilliam's Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus on December 25th. To fill the role left incomplete following Ledger's death, Gilliam hired - as you know by now - Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, this giving Law two films opening on the same day (along with Sherlock Holmes).

There's a new set of Korean posters for Parnassus from IMP Awards, and while I would think Gilliam's films in general play better in Europe than they do here, I don't know if that would hold true in Asian countries. Incidentally, the movie's already made $12 million in Europe, about half of that in Italy. But clearly, we're not seeing a slew of character posters in the US, so this might be a much bigger deal in South Korea. In addition to Ledger and his three replacements, we also get a more general poster for the film and one featuring the rather unique looking model Lily Cole.

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Strange, Unique New Poster for 'Doctor Parnassus'

When we showed you one of the trailers for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus a couple months ago, we finally got to see what Terry Gilliam had up his sleeve. No matter what happens - whether or not the film is actually any good - we know that Gilliam hasn't lost his touch as a wildly creative visual artist.

This new poster sure brings to mind a few adjectives, and it looks strikingly Gilliamy. There, I coined "Gilliamy." The way you'd make something like this has changed a lot over the years, but it's a similar concept to his Monty Python animated segments. If you want a better look at the details, click to enlarge.
Poster courtesy of IMP Awards

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New UK Poster for Terry Gilliam's 'Doctor Parnassus'

I was genuinely taken aback by how good the trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus looked when we first saw it this summer. It was hard not to expect something less than smooth, based in part on director Terry Gilliam's usual difficulties finding financing, a convoluted story, and of course, the death of Heath Ledger, who was replaced by three actors.

But the trailer tells a much different story. It looks like Gilliam had an enormous budget and the Ledger stuff doesn't seem nearly as drastic as it absolutely had to be. So now rather than being just a curiosity, I'm legitimately interested in checking out. Here's the new UK quad poster from Empire:

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