Terry Gilliam has already proved that he knows how to create believable worlds (for example Brazil or 12 Monkeys). In the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus he proves this again. The story is about Dr. Parnassus who has made a bet with the devil and to do win it he’s travelling through Great Britain with a show. With an old-fashioned play he tries people to step into his imaginarium. When a person steps in he will be able to see all the things he is imagining. So dream worlds are created for that person
Of course these leads to some very surrealistic scenes, which reminded me of movies like What dreams may come or the more recent The Lovely Bones.
I once read that directors show you the way they look at the world and how you can lose yourself in that vision. It also explains why you will not like some movies because it’s so different from what you expect yourself. This was not the case with me. The setup for the movie is great and the story is quite mysterious.
Of course it’s a well-known fact that this was Heat Ledger’s last movie. After his breakthrough performance in Batman I’m sure he would have become a big name in Hollywood. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. During the filming of this movie he died and it was not known if the movie could be finished. Colin Farrell, Johny Depp and Jude Law however stepped up to give their performances in the various dreamsequences which made it possible to finish the movie. I expected this might have turned out very strange, but because you are in a dream world it feels very natural and not forced at all.
If you like previous work that Gilliam did, or like fantasy and mystery then i highly recommend this movie.
Score: 8
This is one of my fun discoveries of this year. I had heard mixed things, so I was surprised at how inventive and fun it was. Gilliam is definitely at the top of his game here. Nice post!