Imagine that.

The Imaginarium of Doctor  Parnassus is a film by Terry Gilliam, who is probably most famous for his work on Monty Python (particularly, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the funniest films ever made). The film stars the late Heath Ledger in his last major film role, and Christopher Plummer. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a film about the power of the imagination, but does the film have the power to captivate the imagination?

I don’t wish to spoil the finer details of the plot, but I’ll write a brief synopsis.

The plot centers around (as you may have guessed) Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), a man who’s age succeeds several centuries, and his traveling “Imaginarium.”

The Imaginarium works as a way for people to enter their imaginations. Though it isn’t so simple as for people to merely explore otherworldly wonders through their imaginations (though it does that too), but drastic moral decisions and life or death situations take place inside the Imaginarium.

You see (without spoiling anything), long ago, Dr. Parnassus made the grave mistake of making a deal with the devil (literally). But in order to escape his dept with the devil (or Mr. Nick, as he is called in the film), Parnassus makes a gamble with him: Parnassus bets that he can save  the souls of those who enter his Imaginarium by letting the powers of imagination lead them to salvation, while Mr. Nick claims he can take more souls by bringing out their darker desires within the Imaginarium.

Both Parnassus and Mr. Nick spend years and years upping the ante and continuing their “game.” Always upping the number of souls and the allotted time frame of their gambles to make sure it goes on and on (of course, Parnassus has more honest reasons for keeping it going, while the devil, as you would expect, just enjoys putting Parnassus through the emotional torture of it all).

But the plot usually centers around Tony (Heath Ledger) a mysterious man suffering from amnesia. Tony is found by Parnassus’ troupe (which include his daughter Valentina, his probably-as-ancient-as-he-is dwarf friend Percy, and a young man named Anton, who usually seems to be the most prominent performer of the traveling imaginarium). They take him in and accept him as part of their troupe, at first Tony seems skeptical of the whole thing and suspects the imaginarium to be a sham, made for the sole purpose of making money. He soon finds that there is more to the imaginarium than he could ever imagine.

I feel I shouldn’t linger any further on the plot, and I’ll leave you to discover the wonders of the imaginarium for yourself. But it’s suffice to say that the inner workings of the imaginarium are both wonderful in their visuals and their creativity. All I’ll say is that The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is one of the most visually stunning films of 2009.

The acting is equally wonderful. With Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits (as the devil) at the helm, Dr. Parnassus is a film that has as great of acting performances as it does special effects.

But tragically, we all know the sad history of Heath Ledger, who passed away before he completed filming of the film. Though he is in the majority of the movie, the scenes that he weren’t able to complete are taken up by Johny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who are weaved into the film as transformations of Tony inside of the imaginarium. Having three actors fill in for the lead actor after such a tragedy was a big gamble, but it is pulled off in a way that fits in with the rest of the film. Though I’m still not quite sure of the explanation for Jude Law’s appearance…

But it is the performances by the three leading actors that are truly standout, and who make the denizens of the world of Dr. Parnassus feel all the more realistic, despite the completely fantastic world they inhabit.

And although I said I wouldn’t diverge any further into the plot, I feel I have to add that the storyline of Dr. Parnassus is something special, and surprisingly spiritual. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the film when I went to see it, but once I left the theater I knew I had just seen one of the great artistic achievements of the 2009 movie year. It’s rare that a film with such dazzling special effects can have an equally enthralling story. Dr. Parnassus joins those ranks.

Though I’m afraid there is one thing in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus that didn’t quite win me over, and those would be the more comedic moments. Yes, I found some of them funny of course (I love me some British humor), but a lot of it felt out of place. It’s hard to describe, but it seemed some of the humor felt a little tacked on, and sometimes just didn’t seem to make too much sense being where it was. This seems especially strange given the man behind the film, who has proven to be a comedic genius. A lot of the humorous moments just seemed to be there for the sake of being there, without any need to be in the places they were added. But again, it’s not that it is necessarily unfunny, but some of it just doesn’t seem to fit in.

But as a whole, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is a genius film, one of the best of 2009 in my personal opinion. It is a film about morality and creativity. It is a film about the powers of the imagination, and how its wonders can indeed lead us to deeper, more fulfilled  lives. And it is, at heart, a film simply about doing the right thing.

But best of all is all of the originality and imagination that makes it all come together, and how it is brought to life by its great actors, and its astounding visuals.

You can’t stop a story being told.

(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10, rated)

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