The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

     This movie is pretty straight forward. It moves along quickly and effortlessly, and the story progresses well, for the most part. I am however having a rough time digesting it.........I'm not sure if I like it or not so I'm just gonna start with a rundown and see where that leads.

      It's a fantasy movie set in England and it carries an 80's British sitcom vibe with it. The dream sequences were very fun to watch with beautiful scenery. But I found myself lost and not caring when they were in the real world. So we'll stick to the basics.....

     Christopher Plummer plays Doctor Parnassus, an immortal monk that decades ago sold his sole to the devil (Tom Waits) in order to have the love of his life. They have been locked in a game of soul capturing ever since with the good doctors only daughter as the ultimate prize to the winner of this game. I'm not entirely sure if anyone ever really did win, and that includes the audience. But that's pretty much the plot, there's distracting love triangle  that I'm not entirely sure did anything to advance the story. But be it as it may I might not have entirely gotten the directors vision.

      There was some goodness to it however. Verne Troyer played the doctor's confidant and sidekick (Percy) and had roll on the ground funny moments. Also Lily Cole played the good doctor's daughter, Valentina, who is the ultimate prize the immortal monk and the devil are fighting over. She was very good in the role, highly believable and a pure joy to watch. I wasn't sold, however, on the other main character, Anton, played by Andrew Garfield. He didn't seem to have much chemistry with the rest of the cast and just didn't fit.

        I think the part that I enjoyed the most was that Heath Ledger, Collin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp were all brilliant in their portrayal of the same character. Due to the unfortunate death of Heath Ledger during filming the dream sequences had to be filmed with the other three portraying variations of the main character Tony. All four of them were great in there parts and I was very happy with how seamlessly and believable the four were. They all did such a good job that I never got pulled out of the character no matter who's face it was.


       All in all I believe it's worth it to see if for nothing other than the performances delivered in the portrayal of Tony. But don't get your hopes up that you're going to see much else enjoyable in it.

       I'll give it 2 out of 5 stars