It almost seems unfair to frame a discussion of Terry Gilliam’s latest foray into the depths of phantasmagoria with Heath Ledger’s death, but there it is, haunting the film is the close of a career defined by high-voltage performances in “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Dark Knight.” Much fuss has been made of Gilliam’s solution to salvaging the performance, recasting only those parts existing within a mirror-bound mindscape with not one but three actors: Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. The good news is that it works. Those parts in real-world London featuring Ledger as a charming amnesiac with a talent for easy lies are preserved and respected, while Depp, Law and Farrell put their own agreeable spin on his appearance and mannerisms in CGI fantasy worlds as psychedelic and crazy as you would expect from the director of “Brazil” and “Time Bandits.” For all intents and purposes, The Dark Knight was Ledger’s curtain call; his crazed, unpredictable, relentlessly amoral Joker is rightly iconic in its own way. In “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” we have a likeable, if lesser, encore that reminds us just how engaging and effortless Ledger was on the screen.
Yet the true heart of the film lies in Gilliam’s return to form with the off-the-wall imagination that brought us those zany Monty Python animations. Built on the scaffolding of a carnival fairy tale flush with moral hazard, innocents in jeopardy, and uncanny weirdness, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus unleashes Gilliam’s wistful worry for the state of storytelling through the mystical character of Doctor Parnassus, a stereotypical Christopher Plummer role if ever there was one. Thrust through a mirror into worlds in which unwary souls confront their innermost temptations with a choice that leads either to ecstatic enlightenment or damnation, this is the story of a father trying to save his daughter’s soul in a high-stakes game with the Devil. The conceptual details of the mirror world and the moral consequences within are regrettably fuzzy; between dancing policemen and ladders to the clouds, the significance of the choice between Mr. Nick’s cheap sin and the Doctor’s lofty heavens seems a bit strained. Damnation is easy enough to understand, but we never learn in what way people’s lives are transformed beyond an immediate sensation of euphoria when they choose the Doctor’s path.
Philosophy lessons, however, have never been Gilliam’s strong suit; this is a work of broad emotion, deprived of the force it deserves if only because the characters, though necessary elements, faithfully serve the plot instead of drive it. Earnest performances from Lily Cole, whose distinctly vintage beauty plays into Gilliam’s aesthetic, Andrew Garfield as Ledger’s rival for Cole’s affections, and Verne Troyer as the Doctor’s loyal companion sustain the film as best they can. And so does the Devil, yes, that good old Mr. Nick played by the only obvious candidate for the part other than Reaper’s Ray Wise. Tom Waits, decked out in bowler hat and pencil mustache, has all the sly, winking charm of a carnival barker who wants you to step this way for the ride of your life. The film is a ride, a looking-glass wonderland that asks for arms and legs to be kept inside the car at all times, but while it evokes laughter and awe it only rarely demands a visceral, human reaction of care and concern. Much like his previous effort “Tideland,” Imaginarium has everything it needs to be a storytelling tour-de-force; overexuberance keeps it from fully coming together.
Entertainment: * (out of two)
Craft: ** (out of two)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown. Starring Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Tom Waits. 122 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for violent images, some sensuality, language and smoking).
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