The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Cannes preview
Preview by Jack Foley
THE last ever movie of Australian actor Heath Ledger, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, has received a mixed response from the Cannes Film Festival.
Critics mostly praised Ledger’s performance as incredibly poignant, but several were left perplexed by the film’s meaning.
The Parnassus of the title, played by Christopher Plummer, is thousands of years old and immortal. He runs a travelling magic show with his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), eager assistant Anton (Andrew Garfield) and dwarf Percy (Verne Troyer), but is haunted by a deal he made with the devil (Tom Waits) that enabled him to pursue the great love of his love.
The price of the deal, however, was that the devil would come to reclaim the soul of Valentina on her 16th birthday, which is just days away.
However, the Devil offers Parnassus a further wager, which means that the first of them to claim five souls wins Valentina and their wager plays out as the remainder of the troupe battle to save the life of disgraced charity boss Tony (Heath Ledger), who is seen at the start of the film hanging from a bridge.
Gilliam’s film switches between modern day London and a parallel universe and, as ever, exhibits some breathtaking ideas. But while critics were taken with elements, many found that the film didn’t measure up to a completely satisfying whole.
The BBC’s Emma Jones also noted that it was hard to judge Ledger’s performance as the film cuts between him and the replacements who stepped in to ensure that Gilliam could complete his vision – namely, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Ledger died during the making of the film and had been unable to complete his performance.
She did note, however, that it was “bittersweet to see him in the flesh and to hear lines spoken to him in the film about those who go before their time”.
She added: “Gilliam’s theme of redemption from rags harks back to his 1991 The Fisher King“, before concluding that while “the critics at Cannes loved it…. most cinema-goers would need to see it more than once to start untangling the multiple themes”.
The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw, however, found the movie disappointing and noted: “The film’s convoluted curlicues are tiring, insisting too loudly on how “imaginative” everything is.
“And when it descends into the real world the film can frankly be a bit ho-hum, with some very broad acting from the bit-part crowd players. But this movie, though perfectly amiable, could be for fans only.”
While Screen International warned that for “anyone not sympathetic to Gilliam’s flights of fantasy, Parnassus will reek of rambling self-indulgence but fans will welcome it as a return to what he does best”.
The Times was also cautious, writing: “The film could have benefited with a lot more hard story and a lot less whimsy. But it is a visually stunning watch. The problem is that it is impossible to unscramble what it all means.
“Ultimately, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a film with a huge heart and a dazzling eye, but it does little for the very thing it is trying to celebrate: the imagination.”
Indeed, even the likes of Total Film noted with a tinge of regret that the film itself failed to provide Ledger with the type of swansong he may have liked.
Gilliam’s latest looks set to divide audiences in similar fashion when it opens in UK cinemas later this year.