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The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Repetitive imaginationBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"

Tony: "Nothing is permanent, not even death."

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is, well, imaginative as should be expected from the master of hard-core creativity, director Terry Gilliam, whose Monty Python franchise and Adventures of Baron Munchausen defined the wild musings of an impish mind bent on bending the mind to his exuberant visions. This outing is not up to the previous adventures despite the last role for Heath Ledger and Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell standing in for Ledger, who died during filming.

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) heads a rolling side-show act in modern London where audience members can pass through a mirrored portal and change their visage and lives. It helps that Parnassus is thousands of years old, having made a Faustian bet with the Devil (Tom Waits) that requires the sacrifice of a daughter (Lily Cole) to the devil at her 16th birthday in exchange for Parnassus's immortality.

Now that the wager is due, Parnassus makes a new bet that requires 5 more souls for the Devil before daughter Valentina's birthday in 3 days. Much repetition reigns as the five prospects are guided through the mirror with the major interest possibly the way Gilliam completed the film without Ledger (ingenious method).

Although the film can be enjoyed as a medieval allegory of greed versus charity, good versus evil, or an extended Twilight Zone tale, it feels labored, disjointed, and clich?d. If you consider the lovely little wagon of Bergman's Wild Strawberries, which contained only the magic of a baby Jesus, you might see how disappointing that Gilliam couldn't have told the same kind of story simply and lyrically.

As it is, Imaginarium is a Gilliam mind gone wild, leaving an audience in the wagon's dust.

John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com