The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics


Like all creative geniuses, Terry Gilliam is cursed. But, not because he is creative. Terry Gilliam is cursed because he’s constantly challenged with the task of enlightening the rest of us non-creative types through his unique visions. Not everyone will understand him, and even fewer will fully appreciate him. Yet, he still creates. It’s the curse of the artist. Always trying to get everyone else to see what they see. In his latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam gives life to an age-old morality tale and challenges us to see it in a whole new light.

In the film, Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) made a deal with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), a thousand years ago and became immortal. Today, he travels around London with his theatre troupe made up of Percy (Verne Troyer), Anton (Andrew Garfield), and Parnassus’ own daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) performing a very unique magic act. Audience members are transported through a special mirror onstage inside their own imaginations which the doctor has the ability to manipulate.

One night, a drunken Parnassus confesses to Percy another deal he made with Mr. Nick in which he has to give Valentina to him on her 16th birthday. Later, after the doctor passes out, the rest of the group runs across a man (Heath Ledger) hanging from a rope underneath a bridge. They save him, he joins their act, and Mr. Nick returns to make one final deal with Parnassus – the first one of them to seduce five souls wins Valentina.

Without question, Parnassus is vintage Gilliam. It shares many of the same themes and visual styles as Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. All of them deal with expanding the limits of imagination, and Parnassus is no exception. The characters travel back and forth between a dark, grungy, modern day London and the bright, colorful realm of their own minds as they’re forced to choose between the easy road and the hard road of salvation.

The biggest difference between his latest venture and his earlier work is that Gilliam has incorporated a little of Faustus and Everyman into his version of a morality tale; and, yes, being a morality tale, Parnassus is loaded with overt Christian iconography. You name it, it’s in there: forbidden fruit, a serpent, even a dance with the devil. But, it doesn’t stop there. Gilliam has also thrown in some pretty deep subtext about God, free will, and the consequences of our choices. So much so, in fact, that it’s impossible to catch everything in a single viewing.

But, that’s Terry Gilliam for you. He’s mastered the art of creating surreal worlds through his ultra wide lenses and deep focus cinematography that the audience literally has to choose which aspect of the shots they want to see. Personally, that’s what I love about Gilliam’s films. You get more out of them on the second and third viewings than you ever do the first time around. Sadly, most people will probably miss a lot of what’s really going on in Parnassus because they’re going to be too focused on the fact that it was Heath Ledger’s last film.

With Ledger’s untimely death from an accidental prescription drug overdose halfway through filming last year, it’s a miracle Gilliam finished the movie at all. After a brief stopdown, he was finally able to rewrite the rest of the story to where Ledger’s character Tony could be portrayed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Collin Farrell (respectively) each time he enters the Imaginarium. As it turns out, the solution was perfect. By having a different actor play a different facet of Tony, it gives more depth to the character in this unbalanced world of opposing forces.

Overall, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a visually stunning and emotionally complex film, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for mindless, formulaic Hollywood entertainment, this movie isn’t for you, and Terry Gilliam is OK with that. He knows better than anyone that most artists aren’t successful when battling the curse of creativity. Not everyone can see the bigger picture. However, if you’re at least willing to try, Gilliam’s latest flick is worth a trip (or two, or three) to the theater. Believe me, it’s no coincidence the first image of Ledger onscreen is of him being resurrected from the dead. Parnassus isn’t the only one playing God in this Imaginarium.


© Left From Hollywood 1/8/10