The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible 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, 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 is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone 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. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all.Um . . . . . . what? I tried to watch this movie. I really did. I kept telling myself that Terry Gilliam made 12 Monkeys and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and that the movie would come off its high and straighten out. I just couldn't do it. After 30 minutes of watching what was clearly an acid trip on film, I couldn't do it anymore. I found myself actually getting nauseous and a headache trying to figure out what was happening while on screen was nothing but crayola/imagination madness. Maybe I will try to watch the rest of this sometime when I have free time and what not. Not sure that I have the stomach for it though.
I wouldn't really recommend anyone checking this out. Sure, its Heath Ledger's last movie and Terry Gilliam is one hell of a crazy director, but this movie is way too mish-moshed to be able to enjoy.
