The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Thanks for the memories!

Beautiful, moving film.

A Disappointing Continuation

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I re-watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus lately on my notebook (better watch on a wide big one - the bigger the better) and was again fascinated by this little movie full of poetry, fine imagination and visuals and a great cast (Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield and Heath Ledger - his last movie as far as I know).Well, this movie is maybe not made for the mainstream taste - if someone complains that this movie makes no sense he should just shut down logic and embrace the experience.Anyway, imo this one belongs to Terry Gilliam's finest moments like The Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Brazil: a fairy tale told in fantastic pictures.

I loved several parts of this film. I thought that some of the scenes were really beautiful, with a dream-like quality to them that pulled me into the "imagination" aspect. I thought that the acting was solid however, and I don't consider myself to be uneducated, I had a hard time keeping up with some of it. I am hoping that, should I watch it again, I will be able to pick up on the parts of the story that I lost in translation. I hope I will. It was visually fascinating that I really want it to win me over a bit more.I am not really a fan of Heath Ledger and its not because I've problems with the way he acted. I just haven't watched many of his films. I've only seen this, The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain and A Knight's Tale. I do think that he played his roles in these movies outstandingly well. He really seemed to commit to his characters. Everyone always mentions his portrayal of the Joker from The Dark Knight as being some of his best work and I agree he did an amazing job of giving the cartoonish Joker a much more sinister persona. I think it was awesome of the other actors stepped in to help complete his last movie and they are to be commended for doing so. My final take on this is that this is a movie that I will have to watch more than once to understand it better but it was well made and the visuals were worth the watch.

I had never heard of this film until I saw it as a "Coming Attractions" tacked onto another DVD I rented.This fantasy definitely shows the directorial hand of Terry Gwilliam in the acting as well as the sets. That makes it difficult to summarize, so I'm thankful so many others already have...and in detail, too. There's a bit of Faust...and a whole lotta Monty Python in the mix.The entire cast is a good one, doing justice to their roles, and the acting frenetic and fast-paced. It's good to see Verne Troyer in something besides his Mini-Me role. The sets are pure Monty Pythonesque...indeed the entire story is like a dream—not necessarily a bad one, though occasionally clutching at the borders of the nightmarish—definitely one which seems to make sense at the time but upon wakening, can't be described with any coherency. Since Heath Ledger died during filming and was replaced by Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, that line of demarcation is sadly easy to note…about a third into the film. The way the replacement is done is clever and the audience will accept it easily, however.All in all, an entertaining film, clever, frenetic, whimsical, though bordering on indescribable in the graphics of its plot. It's a pity it didn't get more publicity and exposure.Be warned...this is a film which needs to be seen several times to thoroughly understand and enjoy it all. The costumes, the subplots, the dialogue...there's simply too much to savor for one viewing.This DVD was viewed as a rental and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.

Going through the world of the battle between good and evil on film has taken its toll on me as I look at the worlds of light and darkness and strive to figure out what are the underlying messages of the creators of films like this that I see. As imaginative as modern movie makers can be with the technology of computer generated effects, it can also be as confusing as the devil's own playground which this seems to be desperate to give viewers a one way ticket to. Even if this does feature an allegedly decent character in Christopher Plummer's Dr. Parnassus, the fantasy story of them fighting to collect souls just strikes me as something spiritually unsound.Thus, I can only look at this for its qualities as a film-through its general story, through its performances and through what it delivers artistically. I can imagine if I had been there in the dinner and have to go to the bathroom, I would never have left my seat. However, on DVD, you can pause it and even walking to the kitchen, you must leave it at the where you left it without missing one second of it. I attribute to how it looks, and the fear that even missing one minute of it could send me scrambling to find my place back and simply taking in every issue as I would a painting in a museum makes it virtually necessary to give its full concentration.Veteran actor Plummer, by all counts, is the leading actor and he shares acting honors with Tom Waits who plays Satan himself. As I have learned through my biblical studies, Satan when he appears is charming, and that is certainly the case here. But Satan is a phony, and it is obvious through looks that way to get through his excellent performance that this man even as tempting as it is can not be trusted at any percentage. Heath Ledger originated the role that is later taken over by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. It is often perplexing to try to figure out how the character of Tony is played by four actors and who the character actually is.Plummer's deal with the devil however leave me cold with the film overall, why he would even consider giving up the soul of his beautiful daughter to Satan, having dealt with him when he pretended to be a younger man in order to seduce the woman he loved. This shows a lack of moral ambiguity to Plumbers character, and that really doesn't create any sympathy for him. It gives the impression that Hollywood films push the idea of eternal youth and that aging gracefully is not a desirable life.Some moment are perfectly convoluted and even though the film is luscious to look at through an artistic vision, you must be in tuned to some views of the occult to understand where this is trying to go. I don't, no matter how much I open my mind to it, and find many elements of the underlying meanings to be massively disturbing. Reminding me of the same director's "Baron Munchausen" with a bit of "Dante's Inferno" thrown in, I won't praise it for what I felt it was trying to do, but I will give it thumbs up for looking as tasty as it does. The temptation maybe there for me to be taken in by this, but fortunately I am able to resist it.