The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus review

For anyone who has never seen a Terry Gilliam film, then here's what I will say. If you take Tim Burton, loose a degree of the dark look and shift that to the actual tone of the picture and then throw some paint and crazy into the mix, you've got yourself a Gilliam picture. The man is creative and sometimes too creative for his own good. In fact if you wiki Terry Gilliam you can easily discover just how many of his films revolve around some kind of conflict either with studios, producers, actors, the Writer's Guild of America or all the above. In the case of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" however, he had the worst thing possible to happen, which was the death of his lead actor Heath Ledger.

So two or three years later we get Ledger's final performance piece and finally... FINALLY Gilliam has created maybe his best work. I say this being a big fan, but knowing the flaws within his work involving pacing, characters and just him going hog wild and forgetting what the damn story was all about. No, here is a perfect fantasy film that's original, funny, jarring at times, sexy, thrilling and one of the best pictures of 2009 (although I can't officially list it). The first thing I'll say is that I'm actually surprised at how much Ledger was in the film. He's actually pretty much throughout the whole thing minus the effects sequences in which he enters the mirror into Dr. Parnassus's mind. In those sequences for some... I won't say who... their appearance changes, thus Tony is played by Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. It never feels stapled onto the original story or idea, it feels genuine.

But really his character Tony isn't quite as important as Dr. Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer and damn well I should say. His lovely daughter and assistant with the show Valentina played by Lily Cole. And the devil Mr. Nick played by the always entertaining Tom Waits (who will also been seen in "The Book of Eli"). The real plot involves them and the bet... well... bets made between Parnassus and Mr. Nick. Mainly the one in which for immortality with the woman of his dreams, Mr. Nick would get any child he fathered with the woman when the child reaches sixteen; and guess who has a birthday coming up. Of course Valentina has no idea about this, but Anton, the other assistant who's head over heels in love with her does and Parnassus' long time friend Percy played by Vern Troyer.

Hope is restored thanks to the devil, but not without something up his sleeve as usual. The addition of Tony to the traveling show also proves most helpful, except to Anton because all of Valentina's attention has gone to him. Now let's talk about the glorious imaginarium. It's pretty damn cool. The effects both CGI and practical are impressive and very much in keeping with Gilliam's true style. I'll say it's not quite as dark as some of his past pictures, but it doesn't need to be like oh say "The Fisher King". But there is dark places it goes to and some extremely funny sequences that really show off that humor and creative muscle he's got.

I do wish more of his films were floating around in Wal-Mart and what not so more people would pick them up. It seems like Tim Burton has some stranglehold cult love from goth kids, tweens and people who like movies and hang around Hot Topic. But ask them about Guillermo Del Toro, Terry Gilliam or even someone like Nick Castle (gotta love "The Last Starfighter") and they give you blank stares. I imagine it's because Burton's stuff is more out in the mainstream and Gilliam has remained independent most of his career. And given his history I'm really sure it was by choice. But if there is one of his films to see, let you begin with this one. It's a real love letter to his friends and fans and in many ways it's the kind of movie I've always wanted to see his name attached to. This is perfect fantasy.

"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" **** out of ****