Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
1/18/10
Some
footnotes loom so large over a film that they eclipse all else about it,
and that's never more true than when a beloved star dies during filming.
That effect doubles when extraordinary measures are required to finish
the production, and as such, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
will always be, first and foremost, the final screen appearance of Heath
Ledger. While he'd been a popular movie presence since bursting onto
the scene in 10 Things I Hate About You and The Patriot,
his performance in Brokeback Mountain showed that he was far more
than a mere movie star: he was one of the finest actors of his generation.
His Oscar-winning work in The Dark Knight
only cemented that fact, but by then, he was already gone, leaving roughly
2/3 of a finished performance in Terry Gilliam's first film since he first
directed Ledger in the underrated The Brothers Grimm in 2005.
Determined to finish, Gilliam recruited 3 of his star's talented friends
(Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell) to complete his performance under
circumstances that somehow make narrative sense. The result is a
wonderful moment in time, a splendid tag-team performance by 4 of our best
actors. Pity that the movie that surrounds it only works in patches.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus makes sense about half the time,
and even then it's often rambling like it was getting paid by the minute.
Heath Ledger's fans really do need to see Parnassus, but that doesn't
mean they'll enjoy it.
Step
right up and experience The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a traveling
carnival-style show that creeps through the streets of modern-day England
trying to attract paying customers to step through a tinfoil “magic mirror”
and allow Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) to use his alleged psychic powers
on them. On this particular night, some drunken jerk looks to trash
the place, but instead ends up going through the mirror. On the other
side lies a fantasy world where he's tempted, and ultimately killed, by
Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), who you just might call The Devil. Parnassus
knows Nick well, as he made a series of deals with him over the hundreds
of years he's lived, the most recent of which promised the Doctor's daughter
Valentina (Lily Cole) to Nick on her 16th birthday, which is only days
away. As the traveling crew skips out before the police get too curious,
they come upon a man (Heath Ledger) hanged from a bridge. He claims
to have no memory, but he finds a discarded newspaper that tells us his
name is Tony, and also that he was an investment banker whose corrupt children's
charity stole millions from contributors. Choosing not to share that
little detail, Tony volunteers to use his marketing savvy to draw new customers
to the Imaginarium. It will need them, because Parnassus has made
a new wager, one that will save his daughter's soul if he can save five
visitors to the mirror before Mr. Nick can claim the souls of the same
number.
The
trips through the mirror are The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
bread and butter, and they provide exactly the kind of outside-the-box
fantasy imagery for which Gilliam is famous. They also are the only
scenes Ledger had not completed, allowing each trip to give Tony a new
face based upon the mindset of the person who's made the journey with him.
A miserable old woman gets a world filled with shoes and a Lothario Tony
(Johnny Depp). Four angry Russian mobsters get a Snake Oil Salesman
Tony (Jude Law) and Valentina gets the model (Colin Farrell) she's pined
away for in a magazine photo. There's some excellent stuff in the
Imaginarium sequences, particularly Law walking on sky-high stilts and
the way the sequence with Farrell puts Tony's hilariously deep, dark secrets
on the table.
They
also contain a lot of bloat and one unspeakably awful musical number (whether
it's called “We Love Violence” or not), and in general Doctor Parnassus
has trouble establishing any momentum because Gilliam doesn't seem to know
the difference between what's working and what's not. There's a loosey-goosey,
improvisational feel to many of the scenes that's unique for a movie with
this many visual effects, but often those scenes go on and on, even when
they served no point in the first place. Could it be that the director
couldn't bear to cut a moment of his star's final performance? Perhaps,
but the impulse does his final movie no favors.
The
cast is game and mostly fun. Of course, the audience is here to see
Tony and the four actors playing him are quite good. Ledger had a
lot of fun with that improv stuff, and makes Tony an unpredictable heel
that you can't really hate. This is the kind of role that fills out,
rather than highlights, an actor's resume, but he's in there giving it
his all and having a great time. It's a real shame he didn't
get to play Ferrell's scenes, which are the movie's meatiest. He's
really good at allowing the full-on Evil Tony to come out and play, while
Law and Depp play their cards closer to their vest. But what's really
cool is the way all four of them are not just playing the same person,
but seem to be doing so in the same body. It's an outstanding tag
team performance, and would be Parnassus' most memorable attribute
even if it had not been born of tragedy.
Waits
gives the movie's other standout performance, since for reasons never made
clear, Mr. Nick just can't bear to score a final victory over Doctor Parnassus.
I suppose he just enjoys all the interim wins too much, and Waits is terrific
as this showy but conflicted Devil. Plummer, Cole and Andrew Garfield
as Tony's competitor for her heart, do what's expected of them, if not
much more. Verne Troyer, on the other hand, is quite delightful as
Parnassus' most trusted friend, showing chops I never knew he had.
There's
a lot to divert the Imaginarium viewer on a moment-to-moment basis,
including a sly and cynical satire of the selfish impulses that draw the
wealthy to children's charities. But on the whole, it doesn't add
up to much, particularly since much of what we see never does quite make
sense. There's a sense of being made up as it goes that's true even
of the scenes Ledger was able to complete, and the climax, while well acted
by Ferrell and Plummer, comes totally out of left field. I'm glad
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was completed, if for no other
reason as a testament to just how much Heath Ledger meant to the Hollywood
community he left too soon. But it is ultimately a footnote and little
more. |
