The death of Heath Ledger transformed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus from mere movie to cultural phenomenon.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, it's a trippy couple of hours at the theatre.
This fantasy concoction (and moral fable) features Christopher Plummer as the mysterious Doctor Parnassus, a 1,000-year-old man whose caravan houses a magical traveling theatre show.
The story opens in London, as Doctor Parnassus and his followers stop their portable house and set up shop. The roof goes up and the theatre unfolds.
Local drunks gather around to heckle and cause trouble, and the next thing you know, one of them gets up on stage and -- shades of Alice -- falls through a looking glass. He comes out the other side in an enchanted place. Everything about this drunk has been transformed, including his face. He wanders an amazing, imaginary landscape, and is then offered two choices, in a moral sort of way. And he makes the wrong one.
What is all this? It's Doctor Parnassus' amazing world, a place he shares with his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) and helpers --Anton (Andrew Garfield) and Percy (Verne Troyer).
There's plenty of weirdo history about Doctor Parnassus and his past as a monk and his deal with the devil (played wonderfully by Tom Waits); in the end, it all boils down to this: (a) Parnassus must continue to be a wandering storyteller, whether the world wants him or not, and (b) he has to give his daughter Valentina, once she turns 16, to the devil. And her birthday is in a few days.
In the midst of all this, Doctor Parnassus and his crew save a hanging man from death. He is Tony (Heath Ledger), and he quickly becomes part of their strange and wonderful troupe. His past is cloudy, but it doesn't seem to matter because he doesn't remember a lot of it anyway.
Parnassus and the devil, meanwhile, have a bet on about getting souls. Which of them will be first to nab five souls and lead them toward the darkness or the light? Tony soon proves himself to be very useful to Doctor Parnassus on the soul front, especially when it comes to accompanying customers through that magical looking glass and into their own imaginations.
(Thing is, once inside, he's transformed just as everybody else is -- which means that Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell can 'be him', and cover off the fantasy portions that Ledger didn't live long enough to complete.)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus doesn't always make sense, but the visuals are gobsmacking and the general energy of the thing is exhilarating.
The world on the other side of that mirror is stupendous, full of fantastic cartoony creations; on another level, it's heartbreaking but wonderful just to able to see Heath Ledger in what turned out to be his final performance.
The fantasy side of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is filmmaker Terry Gilliam at his Monty Pythonesque best.
Whether your interest is souls or cinema, this one is worth seeing.
(This film is rated PG)
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