The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Director:

Terry Gilliam

Writers:

Terry Gilliam (written by)
Charles McKeown (written by)

Release Date:

16 October 2009 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

A traveling theater company gives its audience much more than they were expecting. |

Plot Keywords:

Parallel World | Death Of Cast Member | Old Man | Magical | Cult Favorite

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Johnny Depp	...	Tony (1st transformation)
Heath Ledger	...	Tony
Colin Farrell	...	Tony (3rd transformation)
Jude Law	...	Tony (2nd transformation)
Christopher Plummer	...	Dr. Parnassus
Lily Cole	...	Valentina
Tom Waits	...	Mr. Nick
Andrew Garfield	...	Anton
Verne Troyer	...	Percy
Paloma Faith	...	Sally
Quinn Lord	...	9 Year Old Son
Cassandra Sawtell	...	Olga
Carrie Genzel	...	Journalist
Michael Eklund	...	Tony's Aid
Ryan Grantham	...	Little Anton
Johnny Harris	...	Policeman
Brad Dryborough	...	Repulsed Diner
Mark Benton	...	Dad
Mackenzie Gray	...	Substitute Monk
Simon Day	...	Inspector
Ian A. Wallace	...	Fourth Monk
Fraser Aitcheson	...	Dancing Policeman
Michael Jonsson	...	Paramedic #2
Joseph Cintron	...	Monk
Peter New	...	Paramedic #1
Richard Riddell	...	Martin
Vitaly Kravchenko	...	Piotr
John Snowden	...	Chauffer
Igor Ingelsman	...	Gregor
Erika Conway	...	Mother at Puppet Show
Richard Shanks	...	Martin's Friend
David Smallbone	...	Sally's friend #2

Also Known As:

L'Imaginarium du Docteur Parnassus (France)
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (International: English title) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violent images, some sensuality, language and smoking.

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

UK | Canada | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Norway:11 | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | New Zealand:PG | Australia:PG | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Spain:7 | Japan:PG12

Filming Locations:

Battersea Power Station, Battersea, London, England, UK

Company:

Infinity Features Entertainment

Trivia:

Heath Ledger's last movie project.

Quotes:

Dr. Parnassus: Voilà!
Tony: Voilà!

Movie Connections:

References Mary Poppins (1964)

A visually beautiful mess of a tale

It breaks my heart to have to give a Gilliam film 3 out of ten, but here it is.

I adore the man, and would spawn his children if it were physiologically possible ( and we got on) but I can't defend the complete lack of cohesion and narrative structure in this movie.

Some of the effects are spellbinding, so it's safe to assume that a fair few million has been ploughed into it. Why wasn't some of this diverted into developing the script?

The acting was also terrible, but then you can't make a Prada handbag from a sackcloth. Or something. Even Heath Ledger, God rest his soul, couldn't rescue a script this bad, and it's lamentable that this is his last feature.

The vast majority of the film passes without the introduction of a storyline, and when it does it is almost as an apology. It felt to me like I was watching footage from the cutting room floor, from disc 2 of the DVD, and that somewhere out there is a really good movie from the stuff that actually made it!