The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus | Terry Gilliam, 2009
Terry Gilliam should be cherished. There, I said it. Such a statement certainly won’t endear me to the man’s detractors, of which there are many, but I firmly believe that filmmakers of his kind – that is, those who aren’t afraid to follow their vision – are part of a dying breed. Considering the near-universal failure of his two most recent titles – The Brothers Grimm, Tideland – one can be forgiven for wondering just how Gilliam now finds himself in such a position; not only did he manage to secure a $30 million budget for his new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but it also boasts what is surely the most impressive cast we will see all year. It is a star-studded cast that was, of course, born out of tragedy: the death of leading man Heath Ledger on the 22nd of January 2008, around a third of the way through filming, suspended the project indefinitely. However, the tragedy provoked such A-Listers as Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law to sign up as replacements, who in doing so (also forwarding their wages for the role to Ledger’s young daughter, Matilda) practically guaranteed the completion of the film – something that Gilliam must have thought was beyond the realm of possibility at one point last year. While Ledger’s death was a tragic loss, not only to the world of film, it must also be noted that such huge setbacks are not unknown to Gilliam, who has encountered production problems alarmingly frequently throughout his career – his longstanding project about Don Quixote being the foremost example.
Fans of Gilliam and his unique approach to movie making will undoubtedly find something to love here. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus follows a travelling theatre troupe through a grey, unforgiving version of modern London as they unwittingly stumble into a deal made between the Doctor and the Devil some centuries previous. Parnassus, whose pious form is portrayed by the brilliant Christopher Plummer, has recently lost a longstanding bet to the snide Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) and must now pay up by handing over his teenage daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) once she turns sixteen. All seems lost until the troupe stumble across a mysterious man who they find hanging from his neck beneath a London bridge – placed there by the Devil in order to instigate what is to be the very last chapter in the tale of the great Parnassus. This is the first collaboration between Gilliam and screenwriter Charles McKeown in around twenty years; the pair last worked on what was one of Gilliam’s most successful films in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1988. The script isn’t a particular strong point, however, and neither are the visuals. Visuals that, coupled with the film’s London setting and Father-Daughter plot point, quickly bring to mind Dave McKean’s 2005 film MirrorMask. Like MirrorMask, and despite the huge budget, Parnassus lacks polish: it is understandably messy and suffers terribly from some awful faux-English accents, particularly Ledger’s, yet good work can be found in the film’s supporting cast. With Waits, whose devilish voice is enough to make blood curdle, giving the standout performance.
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