[ Image courtesy of Wikipedia ]
Everyone knows that Heath Ledger passed away while working on "The Dark Knight." While most of the general filiming was completed before this, he was also working on another movie. A movie with Monty Python alumn Terry Gilliam, the man responsible for the wacky, but hilarious animations in-between sketches on that legendary comedy show. The movie the two of them were working on was "The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus," a man who somehow has the gift of immortality and has the ability to transport people into a world composed of their personal dreams and what it is they want.If you are familiar with Terry Gilliam's past work (The Brothers Grimm, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys) then you know you will get striking visuals that are often describe as an acid trip to with some sharp chatter with the characters. With this one, the visuals take the spotlight as you see the beautiful results of what you get with Terry Gilliam's mind coupled with CGI.
Christopher Plummer plays "Doctor Parnassus" and you don't have to question if he does a good job. Half of the time he's drunk, which I'm sure to him is every other day. Matching and sometimes one step ahead of Plummer is the always awesome Tom Waits as "Mr. Nick," who is pretty much The Devil, armed with a cigarette and a pencil mustache that John Walters would approve. Without spilling the beans, Parnassus and Mr. Nick are in constant competition with each other and this time, the stakes are really high as Parnassus' daughter (played by Lily Cole) is on the line. It's almost easy to forget that the movie also gives you a strong supporting performance by Verne Troyer. Yes, Mini Me. For a second there, I had forgotten the Austin Powers and reality TV era of Verne that most people are familiar with, however being as something of a "I told you so," reminder to Plummer in the movie, it definitely grabs your attention. Kudos to Troyer. Of course the elephant in the room that you're wondering about is how did Terry Gilliam compensate for the fact that Ledger only completed one-third of the movie.
Enter Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.
Law and Farrell are friends of Ledger and Depp worked with Gilliam on "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas" and all three of them stepped in to finish Ledger's role and the execution was done very well. When it was the real world, modern day England, it was Ledger. Whenever his character would enter the Imaginarium, this is where the aforementioned three actors would step in, each time would be a different transformation of Ledger's character. Really, it's done as well as one can be in the unfortunate instance where the lead actor passes away during production. It is interesting to note that apparently upon Ledger's death, many actors offered to lend their services to Gilliam to finish out the role, but Gilliam had treated this project as something of a second family and wanted to keep it that way, and thus opted for using personal friends of Heath. This personal touch is also noticed when at the start of the ending credits, it says, "A film from Heath Ledger and his friends."
"The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus" was one of the movies I was looking forward to seeing in 2010 and I'm glad I did. Obviously part of the interest was the fact that this was Ledger's final movie, but even before that, when I heard this was his next project, I was intrigued enough because of the work of Terry Gilliam and just the evolution of Heath Ledger in his craft, obviously from "The Dark Knight," but also from what I have heard is just one amazing, must-see performance in the movie "Brokeback Mountain."
Underneath the visuals as one you can only expect from Terry Gilliam is a solid story of what it is we dream of having in our lives fused with the eternal battle of good versus evil. Would you take the temptations of evil especially if they were offering you the very thing(s) that you want in life?
Despite the fact that this is the first movie in 2010 I have seen, I'm fairly confident that "The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus" will be on the list of my favorite movies of this year.
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