betsybirsh The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will undoubtedly receive press because of the tragic circumstances- lead actor Heath Ledger died before the film could be completed and other stars finally ended up taking his role to complete it. The film itself is alright but it depends on the audience's sensibilities and preferences. It is definitely a delight to look at, but Terry Gilliam's films have always polarized the audiences. Johnny Depp, Colin Farell and Jude Law fill in for Ledger but ultimately this is a Gilliam show.

EnemyPavement Terry Gilliam is a visionary, a genius, and an inspiration with a great work ethic and more imagination than any other filmmaker in cinematic history.That being said; this film is pretty rough.The early films made by the animator turned film director are classics, some of them even masterpieces. But unfortunately many of his more recent films have suffered for their harsh digital effects. Gilliam has achieved notoriety as a champion of practical effects. It's not surprising that a Gilliam picture relying mostly on CGI would fail to reach the same level of beauty as his previous films. This is a similar problem to that of the Star Wars prequel trilogy; the CG was less impressive and gave off a completely different tone.In the Imaginarium of doctor Parnassus, Gilliam tries to revert back to his previous style and aesthetics and dive back into similar themes that were explored in his classic trilogy of imagination (Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen). However, due to the switch from practical to digital effects, this wasn't fully successful.The film is also edited roughly. The pacing is inconsistent, starting off quite fast, everything happening at once, then turning slow and dull towards the middle. The film doesn't smooth out until the end but by that time, most people should be fully confused and bored.Like the rest of Gilliam's career, this film is not for everyone. If you are a fan of Terry Gilliam then you will probably enjoy it. The plot is fairly easy to follow if you have seen a few of his films and understand his work. If you're able to see past the bad effects, you will like it even more.If you're not into strange or artsy films, then don't bother watching.

Filipe Neto This was, I think, my first contact with Terry Gilliam's work. He's a director who seems to follow a "Tim Burton's style": oddly fantastic and adventurous films. But if Burton is more dark and gothic, Gilliam is lighter and merrier. Anyway, the truth is that this film became better known for being Heath Ledger's last work. Maybe you have seen it because of that! In fact, he died during filming and that forced Gilliam to adapt the movie to this sad circumstance. But let's be serious and face this: it was a fatality, but this isn't Ledger's magnum opus. And I understand people talk about him, but writing a whole review about an hour-and-half movie where you only talk about one actor is stupid. There are more interesting things in this film, and I'll try to focus on it.When I started watching, I knew it was a fantasy movie but I had read only a brief note about it, so I wasn't sure what I was going to see. And suddenly, I felt myself thrown into a strangely unreal world. It all happens suddenly, when we're not expecting something like that, so my first feeling was rejection. I thought that everything was deeply implausible. But I went ahead and, as the movie rolled, I started to realize everything and I ended up enjoying it. Being unreal, imaginative and different, it ends up being very entertaining. The plot revolves around an old man, Doctor Parnassus, who lives in a permanent game with the Devil under the cover of a run-of-the-mill show, old-fashioned and unsuccessful. And then you have the several worlds behind the mirror, created by the minds of those who entered there, and that symbolical choice between good and evil. This will work if you don't question the script's verisimilitude and keep in mind, from the start, that it's a fantasy film and it has some moral and symbolical notions involved.The cast was also good. Christopher Plummer is one of those actors who almost never fails, whatever the character. He was worn out and old enough to lend credence to his character's age; Ledger was also well, and Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp provided support for the scenes that he had no opportunity to film. These four actors were well enough but they all did an average performance, when compared to what they have done previously. Better than any of them Lily Cole, who has half (or less) of their fame, proven us that she can be a good actress, not just a pretty face... she was much better than some professional actresses with no talent I know, putting a lot of effort into her character. Andrew Garfield was also very good, although his character is not so sympathetic due to his destructive jealousy. Playing a character that we know, in advance, that people will hate is a gesture of professionalism. Tom Waits gave life to a sly, clever and elegantly cheating Devil.Technically, I don't have much to talk about. If it weren't for the scenes inside the mirror and some elaborate costumes, the film would be within ordinary patterns. In fact, that old theater costumes are very interesting and scenes inside the "Imaginarium" were excellent, although it's obvious that it's CGI, and it's not even good CGI. But the worst of this movie wasn't it... it was the way the ending was written. A the end, the film tries to wrap all the narrative and give us a conclusion, but everything is poor and poorly done. Besides, there is no happy ending, but a semi-open ending in which we don't understand half of the things that happened.This movie is good, has good script premises and a good cast. For those who like fantasy, it's probably a "must see". But it's so complex and creative that, in the end, it failed to give us a satisfactory conclusion to the story it created.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Terry Gilliam films almost always feel a bit slapdash and chaotic, it's just the guy's calling card to have a modicum of organized mayhem filling the fringes of whatever project he delivers. With The Imaginarum Of Dr. Parnassus, that is probably the case more so than any other film he's made, and despite letting the clutter run away with itself a bit too much, it's still a dazzling piece. Of course, your movie will always have a disjointed undercurrent when your lead actor passes away halfway through production, but that's just the way it goes, and Gilliam finds a fascinating solution to that issue here. Imaginarium is in many ways a companion piece, in spirit, to The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, a film he made decades earlier, both containing a sort of baroque, Da Vinci-esque splendour and sense of fantastical wonder. Christopher Plummer hides behind a gigantic Dumbledore beard as Parnassus, a magician extraordinaire who travels the land with his daughter (Lily Cole, that bodacious Botticelli bimbo) and circus troupe, including Verne 'Mini Me' Troyer. Years earlier he made a pact with the devil (Tom Waits, an inspired choice) using his daughter as collateral, and now Old Nick has come to reap the debt, causing quite the situation. The story is a hot mess of phantasmagoria and kaleidoscope surrealism thanks to the Imaginarium itself, a multi layered dimension-in-a-box that accompanies them on their travels. Things get complicated when they rescue dying lad Tony (Heath Ledger) who somehow ties into the tale as well. Now, this was Ledger's very last film, its future left uncertain after his passing, but help arrived in the form of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, swooping in to play doppelgänger versions of Tony as he bounced from one plane of the imaginarium to another with Cole in tow, always one step ahead of Waits, who is a rockin' choice to play the devil, smarming and charming in equal doses. It's kind of a huge melting pot of images and ideas hurled into creation, but it's a lovable one, the fun you'll have watching it reasonably eclipses lapses in logic, plotting and pacing.