Decisions

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Terry Gilliam always makes interesting films and returns with another offering staring the late Heath Ledger and Christopher Plummer. The good doctor makes a bargain with the devil over who can be the first to win five souls with the doctor's daughter as the prize.

What this film is best known for is the death of Ledger during filming and the actors that fill in for him in the imagination scenes do so seamlessly. If you have seen any of Gilliam's previous films you should be familiar with the themes of imagination that he often explores and they are the foundation of this movie. There is a really interesting marriage of Parnassus's old world show and how it fits in with the modern world that the film takes place in.

What the film seems to be about is the choice people have to make between their imagination and vices which is dramatised by the choice between Parnassus and the devil people in the imaginarium have to make. For Gilliam it is very clear that his personal devil is represented by a smarmy Hollywood executive which is not surprising given the battles he has had in the past. There is something very Blake about the way that people seem to be picking between imagination/innocence and vices/experience. To grow up the daughter has to reject her father and choose the devil and her sexuality?

4/5 worth watching like all Gilliam's work.