Take a trip to the Imaginarium

When I walked into the 10:50 showing of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus at AMC I had extremely high expectations for the movie. After seeing the trailer early last year I began to anxiously await this movie. Terry Gilliam is one of my favorite script writers and he happened to be the writer of this movie. Gilliam uses his imagination and modern technology to create amazing graphics that are unforgettable. Of course Gilliam also had an all-star cast that made this movie even more appealing. Stars like Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and the late Heath Ledger. In short, this movie did not disapoint. Although at times the movie became a little confusing it would soon pull you back into the storyline with an unexpected twist.

To set the scene, we have Dr. Parnassus an old mysterious storyteller that leads his company around to many unexpected places to perform their show for people that seem to have little interest and are incapable of understanding the power of the imagination. Along with him are his young daughter Valentina, showboy Anton who secretly harbors feelings for Valentina, and Percy, Parnassuss’ coachmen and seemingly only friend. As the story unfolds they are soon joined by a mysteriously dubfounde man named Tony. Tony is in debt to the company for saving his life, and in return he helps Parnassuss devise a plan that will help him win the dangerous bet he made with the devil. Parnassuss bet the devil he could get 5 people to sell their souls for immortality, or he would give his only daughter Valentina to the devil.

Originally, Gilliams plan for the movie was to make Heath Ledger play Tony the whole movie. Unfortunately, Ledgers’ untimely death changed the plan for the movie. To keep the integrity of Heath but also that of the movie, it was decided to have 3 different characters enter the imaginarium as Tony. The first transformation of Tony was the change to Johnny Depp to play Tony at his most endearing and lovely moments. Jude law appears shortly afterwards as an aspirational Tony climbing for the clouds, before the longest of the sequences uses Colin Ferrel to finally show us the characters true colors.

Over all this movie was very good. Don’t give up on it if it gets confusing for a second because it’s only a matter of minutes before it will grab your attention all over again. Whether you enjoy it for the graphics or just for the actors it is a must see.

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