Movie Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Starring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer
Running Time: 122 Mins
Genre: Fantasy | Adventure


Terry Gilliam has almost created a love him or hate him reputation for himself. There are people who claim that everything he touches turns instantly to gold; thoses that can stand to sit through even the best of them and then there are the rest of us. Thoses stuck in the middle undecided on whether or not Gilliam is the master some hail him as. Unfortunately for him “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” isn’t going to change a lot of people’s minds. It certainly didn’t change mine.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager.

Doctor Parnassus wears its influences on its sleeves. Mainly derived from fables aimed at teaching a message to generations of children, here the message is aimed at adults and how our choices impact our outcome for better or for worse. It should have been a fine idea, the inclusion of a fable would have been a welcome revision of older films, but to have a whole 2 hour movie based around our life choices not only feels uncomfortably but also extremely pretentious and rather dull. Here in lies the problem; Parnassus has a lot of flash but no will to use it. It spends a lot of time getting nowhere only for an abrupt final lap dash to break the pacing in two. It’s messy and uneven to say the very least.



It almost feels like heresy, to write a negative review of the final Heath Ledger film and to be perfectly honest I’m saddened that I didn’t enjoy it more than I did. Truthfully though, as far as acting goes, Parnassus does a good job finding all the right people for the job. Ledger does a wonderful job as the tricky Tony while his three transformations (Depp, Law and Farrell) all do an admirably job of filling in for him. The films highlight however is the ever wonderful Tom Waits who is simply wicked as the devil. Most of the casting is spot on with very few bumps throughout the duration of the film. The only real grip however is with the ever annoying Andrew Garfield who apparently doesn’t no when to give up. He is always over animated and makes for some of the films weakest moments.

Gilliam’s direction is clunky, it’s clear that he has put a lot of effort into creating this fantastical world but his concentration seems to have wandered while filming. A lot of the scenes are over emphasised, he lets the camera roll for too long and the whole process just screams for a tighter editor. It’s understandable that he wanted to keep as much of Ledger in the film as he could but the movie is in desperate need of a trim. He’s clunky in his direction, a lot of the time it’s clear that he is merely trying to pass time in order to pad out what should have been a 90 minute movie.

The films certainly looks good, the set pieces astound and the colour scheme is simply dazzling. This said some of the costumes are reused quite abit through which seems rather unusual but never really detracts from otherwise fantastic visuals. Often the over saturation of colour can leave things looking a bit cartoony. Some will buy into this and accept it as its own but those people already lost will pass it off as a mere distraction.

Verdict: Much like the film itself my opinion of Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is murky. On one hand the visuals are out of this world and there are some of the performances are things to behold. All of it is held together by some of the weakest storytelling of Gilliam’s run, the direction is clunky, the pacing is erratic and the film has little to no replay value. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus may be a dream land. There is, however, a very thin line between a dream and a nightmare. Sadly, Parnassus’ stop-start narrative frustrates, while much of its melancholy relies on Ledger’s involvement.

Story: 3.0
Acting: 7.1
Direction: 2.0
Presentation: 7.8

Overall Score: 4.9/10