The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - WTF???

When the person that you are watching a movie with has to lean over both half way through the movie and also immediately after it and apologize to you for suggesting the movie in the first place, you know it's a pretty bad one. Some of you may have no idea, but The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is the movie that Heath Ledger was filming when he tragically died last year. Most think that his last movie was as the Joker in The Dark Knight, but no, it was this one. And I kind of wish it wasn't because basically this movie is so weird it was bad. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of weird movies are good because, if nothing else, they are different from anything else out there. But this one is so bizarre it makes it almost unwatchable.

When trying to figure out how I was going to tell you what this movie was about, I hit the proverbial wall, and could not for the life of me think of how to describe this movie without my head exploding. So I looked up some other synopsi...synopsises...synopsis'....whatever. And now I will paraphrase them for you.

Ahem....The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits - creepy guys in Domino and Book of Eli), in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina (Lily Cole) is now rapidly approaching this birthday and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls into believing in their brand of life. Dr. Parnassus enlists the help of the mysterious Tony (played by 4 actors: Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) in his journey. Dr. Parnassus basically promises his daughter to the man that helps him win.

Okay, that sounds basic enough right? Well, when you consider the fact that this movie takes place in the 'imaginarium' which is basically in some one's head, living out their fantasies, it gets incredibly bizarre. You never really learn how all of this is going on other than Dr. Parnassus is somehow pulling the strings with his mind.

I wanted to see this movie because it was Heath Ledger's last movie, and I have liked him even before he blew all of our minds as The Joker. I also knew that even though Heath died half way through the making of this movie, they still wanted to finish it and enlisted the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to finish it. They all 4 play the same character, Tony. And I really wanted to see how they were going to pull that one off. And while it was really cool to see such well known actors play the same character, and while it was a sort of surreal feeling seeing the point in the movie's filming when Heath died, the movie was still pretty bad. There is so much time spent in the 'fantasy world' and it is so strange that you actually get bored with the movie because there is not enough explanation into the characters and their motivations and how the things are happening. Also, this is one of those movies that ran waaaayyy too long. Maybe if it were a bit shorter, it would have been more captivating, but that didn't happen.

I really only have 3 good things to say about this movie. 1) The visuals and effects in this movie are pretty dang amazing. 2) You get to see Heath Ledger's real last film as well as see 3 of the biggest actors today step in and help. 3) This movie would probably be good if you were on some sort of psychotropic drug or something.

I honestly can't say I recommend this movie to anyone other than for them to see Heath. I know some people will say this is a masterpiece of a movie with it's visuals and fantastical and moral themes, but I just didn't like it at all. I can see its good qualities as a piece of art, which are actually pretty amazing, but as a piece of entertainment, I think this one falls way short.