Rated 14 Accompaniment
(Not Recommended For Young Children) 122 minutes
Dir: Terry Gilliam, UK/Canada, 2009
Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits
Academy Award nominations for Art Direction & Costume Design.
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus springs with such dizzying, dazzling force from the mind of its maker that it might as well have been titled The Imagination of Terry Gilliam. Shot through with a bold, extravagant generosity of spirit, this journey behind the literal and figurative looking glass marks a gratifying return to form for Gilliam... And, as Heath Ledger's last film, it arrives with particular poignancy, with Ledger managing to disappear into his role, while imbuing it with his singular presence and energy. The title character is an ancient street performer who oversees a ragtag band of buskers who ply the streets of contemporary London, setting up their traveling stage across from pubs and shops to attract onlookers...Having been lured on stage by Parnassus's comely daughter Valentina and a young emcee named Anton, the unsuspecting mark comes under the mind control of the preternaturally still Parnassus, who sits like a Buddha draped in mystical robes and inscrutable silence. But beware those who venture through the mirror behind him; they will find their imaginations in a cosmic moral tug of war between Parnassus and the malign Mr. Nick, the kind of devil you can't help but dance and make deals with... Gilliam infuses the story with a swirling, plunging kind of visual excitement... to create a world of meticulously curated imagery and textures. Most important, Gilliam has cast actors who can hold their own against his potentially overpowering visual imagination... The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is an extravagant, tattered valentine - a work of gimlet-eyed whimsy, smudge-pot elegance and improbably deep feeling.” - Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post