Well….where do i start ? No seriously, tell me because i have absolutely no idea.
Prior to the movies release the guy in charge of publicity for the movie came out and said it is impossible to advertise this movie, when i read this i laughed thinking ”how hard can Heath Ledgers last movie be to advertise?”
Now i know, because half way through the movie the thought kept on playing in my mind, how would you advertise this movie? It felt like scene after scene of randomised nonsense that was edited the way it was because they tried to throw in every scene that heath ledger managed to film before his untimely death,
Terry Gilliam (monty python) is known for being , lets say ‘kooky’ and the character doctor parnasus could well be based loosely on himself in that they are both eccentrics. I expected a weird fantasy movie from him after reading previews and such, but just how weird wouldn’t become apparent until watching it.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus is a fantasy adventure which takes place in present day England. Doctor Parnasus is a man gifted with the ability to guide peoples imaginations into making a choice between light and joy or darkness and depression. However, when he was younger he made a bet with the Devil in which he won immortality, the thing he wanted the most. The world soon changed on him though, times moved on and his services became surplus and he started to see Immortality as a curse, until one day he saw his one true love and made another deal with the devil. The deal this time was that he was to give up his daughter on her 16th birthday in exchange for his youth, doctor parnasus accepted this deal and was granted his youth and soon wooed the love of his life and had a daughter.
The movie focusses on his struggle to win yet another bet with the Devil so he is able to keep his daughter as her 16th Birthday is quickly approaching. Heath Ledger plays a man who can’t remember anything after someone attempts to hang him from a bridge. Doctor parnasus and co take him in and he begins to help in their struggle to win the bet with the devil.
All the scenes that take place outside of the imaginarium were filmed by Heath Ledger and as a result the movie works better in that it is more understandable when the actors change whilst still being the same character. The actors alternate between each other whilst inside the imaginarium and the smoothest of these changes was when Johnny Depp took over the part, i realised in the cinema that the people around me took a couple of minutes to notice that it was him and the person i saw the movie with noted this and suggested that he would be perfect to take up Ledgers role as the Joker in the next batman movie.
After Johnny Depp’s part in the movie was over it was jude law’s turn, he was considerably weaker than Johnny Depp and felt he really didn’t work in the part and removed you from the character. Next came Colin Farrell, he gave an equally weak performance and the only thing he and Jude Law achieved was showing us all how good Heath Ledger and Johnny Depp are.
There really isn’t much else i can say about the movie, i cant talk about cinematography because there really wasn’t much in it due to the CGI in the imaginarium. I felt it was poorly edited though and my friend and i found ourselves frequently turning to each other with puzzled looks on our faces, puzzling because we just didn’t know what was going on, on-screen.
I’d ask you all to see it just so that i can hear your opinions on it, other than that i really can’t see anyone enjoying it and i will not find myself buying it on bluray and watching it again.
2/10
