The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Directed by: Terry Gillingham, and written by: Terry Gillingham and Charles McKeown

Starring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Lilly Cole, Tom Waits, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer

I was looking forward to seeing this film, excited even, I wanted to see Heath Ledger’s final performance, a Terry Gillingham film that actually got finished and what promised to be a really good story. So I duly took myself to the cinema one afternoon and sat down ready to thoroughly enjoy. After the customary adverts and music you’re sure you’ve heard somewhere else, the lights went down, the curtains opened and the words The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus were scrawled across the screen. I was then met with the slightly bizarre image of a rickety old Victorian side show picking its way through modern day London, before unfurling its self in spectacular fashion. After that it all gets a bit complicated.

I would almost guarantee that many people want to go and see this film for Heath Ledger, and I found myself looking for him for a good amount of the first part of the film, but I have to admit that I found his performance, when it did come, to be disappointing. This is not Ledgers fault however, his performance is actually very good but its not ‘The Joker’ good or ‘Ennis from Brokeback Mountain’ good, so it is almost inevitable that you are left a bit disappointed after all the hype surrounding his performance.

All the performances were very good; Christopher Plummer was quite convincing as the 1000 year old Parnassus, Vern Troyer maintained his peculiarly enigmatic role with ease, and Lily Cole (yes, that is her from the M & S adverts!) was just as good as the seasoned veterans, and Andrew Garfield plays the wet teenager well. Unfortunately all three Ledger Stand-ins just added to my growing confusion, Johnny Depp added a bit of sparkle half way through, Jude Law added little but maintained the pace and Colin Farrell did very well at the nasty bits.

As a film its actually quite difficult to keep a track of, at one moment our heroes are trying to find out who the mysterious Tony (Heath Ledger) is, who will Valentina fall in love with, then the Dastardly Mr Nick turns up, and throws a spanner in the works. For me Mr Nick (Tom Waits) adds some fizz to the film, and provides a few laughs. It is as if there are two main story lines competing for domination: Who is Tony and did he really work with orphans and will Mr Nick get his hands on the lovely Valentina (Lilly Cole)?

The film does not try to score any political points or show the audience what life is like for this person or that person, it only tries to be entertaining and to a greater extent the film succeeds. It feels as if I have been negative about this film for too long because actually it is rather enjoyable, and the graphics in all the dream worlds are simply spectacular, ‘cartoony’ while being oddly real. The one thing I would say is don’t expect to leave the cinema raving about what you have just seen or even understanding what you watched. This film will always be spoken of in the same breath as Heath Ledgers death, shortly followed by “but wasn't he good as The Joker”. Which is unfortunate as it is a good film in its self, just not what was expected as Ledgers last performance.

Many Thanks to Odeon Cinema, Freemans Common.

By John Gibbins