Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a strange, ambitious mess that never quite decides what it wants to be. A fantasy about a man who has sold his soul to the devil, it is also a drama about loss, a comedy about a traveling circus, and a meta-commentary on the nature of imagination itself. The film asks big questions about faith, choice, and the power of storytelling, but it gets lost in its own mythology and loses sight of its human center.
The setup is simple. Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is an immortal man who has made a bargain with the devil, played by Tom Waits as Mr. Nick. In exchange for eternal life, he must give up his soul when his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) reaches the age of sixteen. To save her, he must collect five souls. A drunkard named Tony Shepard (Heath Ledger) is the key to winning those souls, but Ledger’s death during filming left the movie’s identity changed.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Bet That Started It All
The premise is a clever device: a man who has traded everything for immortality now wants to get it back. Parnassus runs a small traveling theater troupe that performs in villages across Europe, offering audience members a chance to step through a magical mirror and see their own imagination brought to life. It is a clever device, and the film spends its early minutes exploring the idea that everyone’s mind is a private, uncharted territory.
Mr. Nick is a persistent presence, a suave and mocking figure who taunts Parnassus at every turn. He reminds Parnassus of the terms of the bargain: in three days, upon Valentina’s sixteenth birthday, her soul belongs to him. The devil is not a fire-breathing villain but a gentleman of sorts, and that makes his menace feel more insidious.
“The man who tried to cheat the devil.”
That tagline captures the film’s central tension. Parnassus is trying to cheat the devil, and the movie spends its runtime showing how hard that is to do.
Rescue of Tony Shepard
Tony Shepard is a disgraced philanthropist who was hanged by Russian gangsters for owing them money. He is rescued by the troupe, who find him hanging beneath a bridge. He spits out a golden pipe that kept him breathing while suspended, and he claims to have amnesia. This is a setup, but it is also a problem. Ledger’s death means that the character’s arc is never fully realized, and the film stumbles badly in the middle where it tries to recast him.
Tony joins the troupe as a barker and helps them remodel their show into a more modern act. He lures a wealthy woman into the Imaginarium, and together they enter a pastel-colored dream world that represents her imagination. The woman’s imagination changes Tony’s face, and he dances with her until she is persuaded to take a gondola ride that wins the first soul for Parnassus. Tony falls out of the Imaginarium, his face returning to normal, and the woman exits shortly after.
The sequence is visually stunning, but it feels like a demonstration of the film’s technical prowess rather than a moment of narrative momentum. The Imaginarium is a dream world, but it is not a character. It is a stage, and the people moving through it need to be the focus.
Ledger Problem
The heart of the film is Ledger’s performance as Tony Shepard. Ledger died one-third of the way through filming, and his death was a tragedy that the movie could not overcome. Gilliam and his team decided to recast the later scenes, showing “physically transformed versions” of Tony within the Imaginarium. Johnny Depp plays the first transformation, Jude Law the second, and Colin Farrell the third.
The result is jarring. Depp, Law, and Farrell are all talented actors, but they are not Ledger. Their performances are competent, but they lack the spark that made Ledger’s Tony compelling. The film tries to explain the transformations as manifestations of Tony’s inner demons, but the explanation is thin. The audience is asked to accept that Tony is splitting into three versions of himself, but the logic behind it is never fully explained.
Troupe and Its Troubles
The supporting cast is strong. Andrew Garfield plays Anton, the teenage barker who rescues Tony, and Verne Troyer plays Percy, the dwarf who is part of the troupe. Lily Cole is Valentina, Parnassus’s daughter, who is at the center of the entire conflict. Christopher Plummer is the perfect casting for Parnassus, a man who has lived for centuries and still believes he can save his family.
The film also features a large ensemble of minor roles, including Paloma Faith as Sally, Gwendoline Christie as a shopper, Peter Stormare as the President, and Charles McKeown as the fairground inspector. These characters are fun, but they are also disposable. They exist to populate the world and provide comic relief, but they do not carry the weight of the story.
Devil’s Gambit
Tom Waits is excellent as Mr. Nick. He is a devil, but he is also a businessman. He is not interested in tormenting souls for the sake of it; he is interested in collecting them. His offer to Parnassus is a deal with a catch: Valentina can stay with him past sixteen if Parnassus wins five souls before Mr. Nick. It is a clever inversion of the traditional devil’s bargain, but the film does not spend enough time exploring what that means.
The film’s ending sees Parnassus winning the bet. The final scene is a message about the power of imagination, but it is a message that has been preached for decades.
Mess Worth Watching
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a flawed film, but it is a flawed film with ambition. It is a movie about the power of imagination, and it is willing to let that imagination run wild. The visual effects are stunning, and the locations are beautiful. The film is dedicated to Ledger, and that dedication is felt throughout.
The film’s problems are structural. The story is too big for its runtime, and the character arcs are too thin. The recasting of Ledger is a wound that never heals. The film is a tribute to a great actor, but it is not a great film.
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