Terry Gilliam, co-wrote, co-produced and directed this masterpiece of the imagination. Doctor Parnassus is running an imaginarium where ticket paying people enter through a mirror into the world of his mind and their imagination. He runs his show with Anton a harlequin like clown, Valentina his daughter and Percy a vertically challenged super intelligent person. One day they save Tony who has been sent to his death on London Bridge by the Russian mafia for not repaying their loan to him that he has conveniently laundered in his children's charity organisation.
The show of Parnassus is underpinned by his mortality and an earlier agreement he made with the Devil. Which if he loses the wager will see his daughter fall to his control. Everyone who enters the imaginarium is able to make a choice for good or for an evil end. In this way Parnassus can continue in his immortality without wishing to change the world or control it as a powerful figure.
Gilliam imparts layers of history to the film, comedie del arte, the renaissance, the industrialisation of the west all sit juxtaposed with the modern 21st Century in which our characters find themselves caught outside time along.
This film asks more questions than it answers. It will leave you with imagery and moments that can be retrieved from your visual cortex for years to come. Rated PG it is nevertheless a reasonably dark film best suited to adults.
Heath Ledger acts in his role with grace and certainty. The sequences filmed with the co-actors of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell are all edited to his footage and storyline in a seamless and plausible way.
Lily Cole is ethereal but real as Valentina. Her beautiful style is made great use of by Gilliam's direction however her acting delivers punch after punch as Valentina makes do with a home living magazine in lieu of the life she really leads as a travelling showgirl in her father's imaginarium.
The imaginarium is a unique idea made up of gypsy trailer, self contained theater, side show alley tralier and simply an effortless portal for the characters to be transformed by.
Rating: 4 and a half STARS.
In good arthouse cinemas from 29th October 2009.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/
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