Terry Gilliam is a brilliant designer. In most cases, he's a miserable director. His films a stuffed with visual goodies, and quirky performances, but they are completely lacking in any emotion or humanity. His films rarely investigate anything meaningful, instead they chase down esoteric philosophical points or overly complex plot situations. Gilliam is capable of some very good moments, but his overall body of work is over-hyped by people who confuse interesting with meaningful.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus tells the tale of the titular Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) who runs a theater troupe that travels London. Parnassus has made a deal with the devil (portrayed by Tom Waits) and has a wager to snare or save five souls. The ante? Parnassus' daughter Valentina (Lily Cole).

Patrons are lured into a mirror onstage, behind which they enter into a supernatural world where their morality is tested and they find pleasure or damnation.

The goofy plot provides Gilliam with plenty of canvas on which to apply his visual flair. The plot unfortunately also gets easily convoluted. Gilliam makes the error of presenting the universe of Parnassus without explaining the details early on. Instead, Gilliam loads the first half of the film with fantastic, but obscure imagery and scenes without explaining what is going on in a logical fashion. The average audience member will most likely tune out of the film before the plot's hook is revealed. For those willing to hang on, the explanation seems more like a cobbled together excuse than a intentional narrative.

The film had a short cinematic shelf life. It would have been completely ignored, like many of Gilliam's other films, if it were not for Heath Ledger's untimely death.

Ledger was working on this film at the time of his drug-induced passing. To complete the film, Gilliam introduced a cheesy element where Ledger's character Tony transforms into different physical forms. This permitted Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to step in and complete Ledger's scenes.

The inclusion of these other actors is conspicuous. These scenes are also, mostly, unnecessary. The added actors are put into scenes where they deal with surreal chase sequences and conflicts. They all give stunted performances Their disconnect with the material is clearly seen in their work.

Ultimately this is a disjointed and unemotional film. Gilliam may have the ability to create quirky and strange designs but he has always flounder giving them any humanity.




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Labels: Andrew Garfield, Christopher Plummer, Colin Farrell, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Lily Cole, Peter Stormare, Terry Gilliam, Tom Waits

Hey, it has Helen Mirren in it. Even if it is an annoying, melodramatic wad of self-indulgence, I still say, hey, it's got Helen Mirren in it.





Screenwriters: Michael Hoffman
Director: Michael Hoffman (The Emperor's Club)
Actors: Helen Mirren (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover), James McAvoy (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Christopher Plummer (Dragnet), Paul Giamatti (Lady in the Water), Patrick Kennedy (Munich) and Anne-Marie Duff (Notes on a Scandal)

Labels: Anne-Marie Duff, Christopher Plummer, film, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, movie trailer, Patrick Kennedy, Paul Giamatti

Like all Gilliam's films this is visually overwhelming.

Hopefully, unlike many of Gilliam's films, this will be watchable.





Screenwriters: Terry Gilliam (Brazil) and Charles McKeown (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Director: Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys)
Actors: Heath Ledger (The Patriot), Johnny Depp (The Libertine), Tom Waits (Domino), Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Andrew Garfield (Lions for Lambs), Colin Farrell (Phonebooth), Verne Troyer (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Christopher Plummer (Dracula 2000) and Peter Stormare (Fargo)

Labels: Christopher Plummer, Colin Farrell, film, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, movie trailer, Peter Stormare, Terry Gilliam, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer

Screenwriters: Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo)
Director: Peter Docter (Monsters, Inc.) and Bob Peterson
Actors: Christopher Plummer (Syriana), John Ratzenberger (Cars) and Edward Asner (JFK)

Labels: animated, Christopher Plummer, film, movie trailer, Pixar

Screenwriters: Steve Acker and Pamela Petter (Monster House)
Director: Steve Acker
Actors: Jennifer Connelly (Dark Water), John C. Reilly (Step Brothers), Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), Crispin Glover (Back to the Future), Martin Landau (Ed Wood) and Christopher Plummer (Twelve Monkeys)

Labels: Christopher Plummer, film, Jennifer Connelly, John C Reilly, Martin Landau, movie trailer

Screenwriters: Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo)
Director: Peter Docter (Monsters, Inc.) and Bob Peterson
Actors: Christopher Plummer (Syriana), John Ratzenberger (Cars) and Edward Asner (JFK)

Labels: animated, Christopher Plummer, film, movie trailer, Pixar

Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven) is considered by many to be a brilliant director. I'm not one with this group. This film about the conflicts between the English settlers and Native Americans is much like Malick's other works. It is a beautifully shot but wholly self-indulgent bore. Colin Ferrell as John Smith who would seemed to be a mismatch with this material does well. Opposite Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher portrays Pocahontas. Kilcher likewise adds to the beauty on the screen and out performs Farrell. The problem is that the piece is so poorly paced that the performances are drowned in the amount of footage the audience is asked to endure. Overall, this could have been a great piece if handled by a less ponderous writer/director. As it stands, it is too long and too meandering to recommend.


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Labels: Christopher Plummer, Colin Farrell, film, movie review, Native Americans, Q'orianka Kilcher, Terrence Malick