Stars: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield, Lily Cole, Tom Waits
Running time: 123 mins
Rating: ★★★

LIKE too many Terry Gilliam films, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a bit of a mess. A fantastic looking one admittedly, but a bit of a mess all the same. The feeling persists that Gilliam’s imagination and flair for dazzling visuals needs reining in to allow a clear narrative to emerge, something the director can’t, won’t or just isn’t interested in doing.

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His past films have been cursed with bad luck, but it’s a miracle that Doctor P was ever completed after star Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose halfway through filming, as production was switching from London to Canada.

Gilliam’s solution for finishing the movie was to cast three actors (and not just any actors but Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell) as stand-ins for Ledger’s character in the fantasy sequences. This works wonderfully well, possibly even benefiting the story.

Plummer’s wise old Parnassus runs a travelling theatre troupe with the aid of cheeky little sidekick Percy (Verne Troyer) and enthusiastic young player Anton (Andrew Garfield). The doc’s magic has to be paid for and the devil, Mr Nick (Tom Waits), comes to collect his dues – Parnassus’s daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) on her 16th birthday. The escape clause is if Parnassus can win the souls of five strangers who pass through his magic mirror.

Tony (Heath Ledger), found hanging by his neck from Blackfriars Bridge, is one of them.

Depp, Law and Farrell play other incarnations of the character as the film meanders around like a drunken partygoer.

Even if Ledger had survived, I can’t imagine Gilliam’s fast and loose production would have made much more sense. He even supplies a surreal Pythonesque moment with a chorus line of singing cops in frocks. But moments of pure genius are swiftly eclipsed by moments of awfulness in this wildly uneven movie.

Plummer, Garfield and Cole carry the film while Depp, Law and Farrell have little time to make much of an impression.

As for Ledger, his final screen performance must play second fiddle to the film’s spectacular visuals and undisciplined comedy.