While his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight will always be thought of as Heath Ledger’s crowing achievement, it would seem that he has even deeper ties to his last film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. His involvement was instrumental in getting the Terry Gilliam movie financed in the first place. Furthermore it was his enthusiastic performance that drove the movie to be finished after his untimely death, so that his final performance would not become lost and unseen. It’s good that audiences were able to see this film, because it is a wonderful if not confusing ride.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus tells the story of an old fashioned traveling theatre troop, led by the wizened storyteller Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer). Thousands of years ago he made a “devils deal” with the cunning Mr. Nick (Tom Waits). The deal was which of them could win over twelve souls first, Parnassus by using stories and imagination and Mr. Nick by using feeble desires and addictions. Doctor Parnassus wins and is granted immortality, but continues to age despite not being able to die. Now he and his theatre troop entertain people by having them pass through a magical mirror which leads them to a mystical realm powered by one’s own imagination, which is referred to as the Imaginarium. But in spite of winning his original wager with Mr. Nick, Doctor Parnassus still has reason to fear him. For in three days time Mr. Nick will come to collect Doctor Parnassus’s teenaged daughter Valentina (Lily Cole).
As they are traveling on the first of these three nights they save the life of Tony (Heath Ledger), a philanthropist who seems to be suffering from amnesia. The next day Mr. Nick pays Doctor Parnassus a visit and offers him a new wager; if he can win over five souls in two nights he can keep Valentina. Seeing that Doctor Parnassus is in a bad way Tony proclaims he can increase profits by modernizing the act and making it sleeker. At a show held in a mall he manages to charm several women into going into the mirror, where they are so overwhelmed by the extraordinary sights they see inside that they empty their purses and proclaim heartfelt thanks upon exiting. But just when the troop are one soul away from winning the bet a group of mobsters arrive demanding money from Troy. It soon becomes apparent that Troy is really a lying con artist who’s more devious then Mr. Nick, and Doctor Parnassus is the only one who can stop him.
Easily the most amazing visuals of the movie are the scenes in the Imaginarium world, where anything can happen if one can just imagine it. The viewer is taken into multiple worlds, featuring such sights as a riverboat surrounded by shoes and fashion to soaring in space on a sea of giant jellyfishes. It is in the Imaginarium that Troy’s appearance changes with each visit, where he is respectively portrayed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farell. Since Heath Ledger had filmed all of his scenes outside of the Imaginarium his appearance only changes inside of this magical world. This makes the fact that multiple actors are playing the same character simple to except. The other unexpected quality to this is it makes the change in Troy easier to realize, for each time he physically changes he grows closer to who his true self is.
It is a grand treat that this visually stunning film was able to be seen by the public. Hopefully others go out and see this eye-catching ecstatic ride. It’s an experience one should not miss.
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