Artist The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Someone very large needs to sit on Terry Gilliam, or he’s going to continue to make unmoored, fantastical calamities like the dull, confusing repository of visual ideas that is The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. The story, such as it goes, follows the ageless Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his performance troupe as they put on a traveling roadshow in contemporary London. Meanwhile, Parnassus and a devilish adversary (Tom Waits) are locked in a centuries-long pact that gives him immortality and imaginative powers, but with his daughter as collateral. Heath Ledger appears as a mysterious stranger who joins the gang, and it says something that Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law complete the late actor’s performance, without it being the least bit jarring. Parnassus is all flights of fancy, but the manic tone gets exhausting fast.

Updated 11/05/2009