The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

This film is unique in many ways, and perhaps most strikingly by its use of four actors for one seedy character, Tony (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell), to portray his different personas throughout the film. As viewers slowly see his true persona emerge, Tony aptly changes in appearance. In hindsight the changing actors are unfortunate, as they became a necessity after the tragic death of Heath Ledger.

However, Gilliam is not one to give up or put to waste good footage, and as the plot allowed it, he cleverly worked in a character with four faces. These transitions take place during the visits through the Parnassus looking glass, so it seems entirely believable that Tony might change physical shape as he enters a different world, and his façade is slowly stripped away to reveal the true Tony beneath.

The 1000 + year old Dr Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) leads a somewhat dingy traveling theatre group, largely ignored by the public. When they meet a nearly dead, white-suited man, hanging by the neck from a bridge, their luck and affinity with their audience starts to change.

The story is a classic fairy-tale of an ongoing battle between good versus evil, with Dr Parnassus frantically buying time until the Devil (Tom Waits) comes to claim his soon to be 16 year old daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). Always a betting man, the Devil offers Parnassus a compromise: - the first to claim five souls is able to keep Valentina. As is recurrent in the plot, reality is never quite what it seems and the essentially good Parnassus struggles with his love of gambling and alcohol, maddened by the hold the Devil has on him.

The mirror portal, part of the travelling troupe's set, steers you into the world of your dreams and is a tool used by the group, to cash in on the souls of curious onlookers. Quite subtly, one scene sees Tony (as Depp) in a boat with the floating faces of Diana, Rudolph Valentino and James Dean, a stark reminder of faces, like Ledger, who will never see old age. Other scenes, perhaps slightly self indulgent and Monty Pythonesque, include a band of cross-dressing policemen in a song'n'dance routine, and a giant handbag and shoe-filled world of gluttonous fashionista.

Can one's imagination change the world? I don't know, I sure hope so but you better check in with Dr Parnassus on that one. He should be milling about somewhere, ever looking for his daughter. For those who like their action or rom-coms, avoid at all costs, but those of you who like to delve into a magical realism world, this is a must see.