The amazing Doctor Parnassus is immortal thanks to a deal with the devil, who he continues to wager with. The Doctor has a magical mirror that enables people to enter their imagination and experience they’re perfect world. As part of a previous deal with the devil he has to give up his daughter on her 16th birthday, which is in a couple of days, unless he can win the new wager and get 5 people to make the right choice of path before the Devil gets 5. When the travelling troupe save a hanging man, Tony, it looks like they just might be in with a shot.
That’s a very rough synopsis as its kind of hard to sum this film up. It’s Terry Gilliam and therefore very weird. And this is Dali levels of weird.
I wasn’t a fan of Terry’s Python cartoons really. A lot of the time they felt like a chance to go and make a cuppa before the funny guys came back on again. I have enjoyed a number of his previous movies though. The Monty Python films obviously, Time Bandits, Brazil, Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas are all movies I can recommend (though Bandits and Baron are vague recommendations as I can’t really remember them all that well). Criminally I haven’t seen Twelve Monkeys yet but that could happen this year, and I wish him luck with this try and Don Quixote as Lost in La Mancha showed some promise. But this here movie? Didn’t quite gel together. Particularly the second half.
The visuals are pretty damned stunning, especially in imagination land. It really IS like a Dali painting and I love me some Dali. So the film looks great, the plot just goes all to fuck later on. Though this might be due to the unfortunately needed re-writes.
This is of course Heath Ledger’s final performance, and he died while they were filming. It worked out quite well that he seemed to have done all of his real life bits though as it enabled other actors to cover the imagination sections. Heath does a great job as always. It annoys me when someone dies and suddenly they’re a genius and a saint, but I honestly haven’t seen him in something that I thought HE was shit in. This is no different though I think that the sections that he wasn’t able to film would have been the real shining ones here.
But Johnny Depp (unfortunately the shortest section), Jude Law and Colin Farrell all fill in admirably. The later two are hit and miss actors but they do an able job here. Alas the same can’t be said for all of the cast which is part of the reason this didn’t click all the way with me.
Andrew Garfield’s Anton is a pain in the butt frankly. That might be the character more than the actor. Verne Troyer is alright, but he’s no Warrick Davis. He has his moments, but nothing special. And Tom Waits…well he’s not primarily an actor is he? The Devil, or Mr Nick here, is a very important character. When he’s played correctly he’s AMAZING. Just look at Reaper for an example. The Devil is one of the best literary characters going, but due to a so-so performance here he’s not. He’s like a zoot suit villain from a B grade 50’s cartoon, without the zazz. I really think that having someone properly capable in this role would have punched the movie up a notch.
As would sorting out that second half. But the fact they pulled it off at all is a miracle. If you don’t like surreal movies, or haven’t like Gilliam in the past then don’t waste your time as this won’t convert you. If you do then don’t expect the best movie you’ve seen from him, but it ain’t bad. And it sure is purdy.
Next up: Il Divo
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