Review of “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” 2009

Our Saturday pizza and bad movie night was a bit different.

Plot:

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) runs a strapped-for-cash traveling acting troupe. The troupe consists of Parnassus’s daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), the barker Anton (Andrew Garfield), and Percy (Verne Troyer), Parnassus’s assistant. They live and travel in a horse-drawn carriage that is a mash-up of an old-fashioned London double-decker bus and a wooden sailing ship.

Aside from acrobatic and sleight-of-hand performances, the great attraction in their show is the “imaginarium,” a magic place accessed through a mirror at the back of the stage where dreams come true. The person must make a choice: the easy road of indulgence or the hard road.

Dr. Parnanssus has made a deal with the Devil, known as Mr. Nick (Tom Waits). In fact, he’s made several. He can’t stop making deals. His first was to become immortal. After a thousand years, he fell in love with a woman and wished to be mortal again. The price he paid was that any child he fathered would belong to Mr. Nick on their sixteenth birthday.

Valentina will be sixteen in a couple of days.

While the troupe is traveling over a bridge in their wagon/ship/bus, Valentina sees a shadow on the water of a hanged man. Dr. Parnassus has drawn a tarot card of a hanged man; he knows this is a sign, but of what?

They are able to release the man and revive him. He remembers nothing. Valentina decides to call him George (Heath Ledger).

Mr. Nick approaches Dr. Parnassus with George’s real identity, Tony Shepherd (but withholds relevant information). He offers the doctor another bargain: he who can win five new souls by Valentina’s birthday gets to keep her.

Has Dr. Parnassus ever said no?

Thoughts:

The visuals in this were stunning, from start to finish. As with so many of Terry Gilliam’s films, it provides a rich fantasyland of things that can’t be but nevertheless are. It’s not all pretty. There are some dark and blighted scenes. Of course, a bird takes a sizeable dump on the impeccably dressed Mr. Nick.

The movie is primarily about storytelling, however. Storytelling is what makes us human. It allows us to preserve and adapt culture. Early in his life, Dr. Parnassus led a group of monks in chanting. Mr. Nick sought to interrupt the story by silencing the individual monks. Dr. Parnassus laughed. Even if the monks are silent, someone somewhere is telling a story. Not even Mr. Nick can stop that.

And so begins the story of Dr. Parnassus and Mr. Nick.

There is a great deal of sadness in the story of the movie. It’s not a Greek tragedy, but it’s still sad. Very little is what it appears to be. When we leave the stage, the story goes on.

There was sadness in real life, also. Heath Ledger, who played Tony Shepherd, died of an overdose during filming. Three other actors—Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell—stepped in to finish the filming.

It’s hard to say how I felt about this film other than awed and saddened at the same time. If you like dark fantasy, this should work for you.

The film was nominated for twenty-three awards, including two Oscar nominations. It received two awards: one for the 2009 Best Costume Design from the Satellite Awards (Los Angeles) and one for Best Costume Design in a Feature Length film from the Leo Awards (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

According to Justwatch, this is only available for rent or to buy from places like Amazon or Apple TV, among other places.



Title: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Directed by
Terry Gilliam

Writing Credits
Terry Gilliam…(written by) &
Charles McKeown… (written by)

Cast (in credits order)
Andrew Garfield…Anton
Christopher Plummer…Doctor Parnassus
Richard Riddell…Martin
Katie Lyons…Martin’s Girlfriend
Richard Shanks…Friend of Martin
Lily Cole…Valentina
Verne Troyer…Percy

Released: 2009
Length: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Rated: PG-13