The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Dark Knight was not Heath Ledger's last film as many may think. In fact, he was in the process of filming this movie when his unfortunate accidental overdose happened. Director Terry Gilliam was not sure if he should abandon this project or figure out something to do with it. The latter happened as actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell stepped up and took on different parts of Ledger's character. Being all close friends to Heath, all 3 actors voluntarily gave their acting profits of this film to the late actor's daughter.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" is about a 1,000 year old man who made several deals with the devil for worldly pleasures such as love, longevity of life, and the ability to let people go into their imagination. Each of these deals came with a catch as the Devil(Tom Waits) held the best of each deal made with Doctor Parnassus(Christopher Plummer). This came to the point to which the Doctor even owed the Devil his one and only child, when she reaches the age of 16. As her birthday approaches swiftly, the final countdown brings a mysterious new figure to Parnassus' traveling wagon which may hold the key to saving Valentina(Lily Cole) from the traps of the Devil.


The creativity in this movie never seems to cease. Everything from the costumes to witty humor of Parnassus's dwarf assistant to the imagination lands and especially how Law, Depp, Ledger, and Farrell are all incorporated into the same character. Each time Heath's character, Tony, goes into the vast plains of his imagination he transforms physically into a new version of himself, each of which fit into the theme of what is happening. It is quite ingenious and should have been planned this way before.

I personally could not find anything truly wrong with this film cinematically but there are a few parts that would not be good for all viewers. There is some use of strong language and a few characters also smoke. This includes the Devil, but I honestly think that the Devil probably would smoke. There is also a very brief scene where a woman is minor clothing but nothing is really revealed. Add some alcohol here and there throughout the film and that's about it.


This is now one of my more favorite movies and is very underrated. It shows how good temptations of life look but yet the consequences are not worth it. A message is also shown about how the choices of life can bring out what the true character underneath. I also give kudos to those involved in this movie by not using Ledger's death as a marketing plan like "The Dark Knight" did with the Joker. I am highly requesting that you spend your hard-earned money and go see this film instead of contributing to the mayhem of a certain movie with blue alien monkeys.