Now, in present-day London, Mr. Nick has come to collect. Parnassus is desperate to save his unknowing daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), who is fast approaching her 16th birthday. Parnassus may have found her salvation in the form of a charming stranger named Tony (Ledger, but when Tony passes through the magic mirror he's played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell). Tony, however, has his own agenda and sketchy past to contend with.
Ledger is in the movie far more than some might expect. The first time we see Ledger his character Tony is dead, or appears so, having been hanged from a bridge. That's a rather chilling introduction to say the least, even more unsettling than the sight of the Joker in a body bag was in The Dark Knight because Ledger was so unrecognizable in that role. Granted, it's been almost two years now since his death, but this film really does offer our last good look at him, and it's a constant tragic reminder of so much lost potential. Fortunately for Gilliam, the device of the magic mirror allowed him to have Ledger's pals Depp, Law and Farrell sub for him in those sequences.
Gilliam's solution also has its significant drawbacks, namely why doesn't everyone who pass through the mirror change? (Only one other character besides Tony changes appearance when he passes through the mirror, but that scene felt like it was tacked on after the fact to try and explain away the partial recasting of Tony.) Still, we just have to give Gilliam a pass on this one as it was that or recast the role entirely and lose Ledger's final performance, or scrap the film altogether. Ledger's performance here is fine, but nowhere near the depth or detail of his Oscar-winning tour de force in TDK.
You can tell which of his replacements had the most room in their schedule by how much screen time they have here. Depp is in it the least; he's fine, but offers a sort of Jack Sparrow Lite variation on Ledger's character. Law is in it for a few sequences more and he, too, is decent, but it's Farrell who gets the lion's share of the screen time and also has the heaviest lifting to do of the three. His incarnation of Tony is the one we see throughout Act Three. Overall, their inclusion is often more distracting than effective, more notable for their affection for Gilliam and Ledger than the actual quality of their performances.
Plummer as the title character and Andrew Garfield as a troupe member who pines after Valentina are both serviceable. Cole appears lost as Valentina, while Verne Troyer -- playing Paranassus' Jiminy Cricket -- simply tries too hard. The real problem with Doctor Parnassus is that it's just a bunch of imaginative ideas, nifty set-pieces and quirky performances in search of a cohesive narrative. That can't be blamed entirely on Ledger's death, as there doesn't seem like there was much of a plot to begin with. Doctor Parnassus is all set-up and no payoff.
Scenes, like the characters, just ramble on, lost in confusion. Nobody seems to really know what they're doing; they're just doing it. It's not like the story was zipping along fine and then -- boom! -- its star dies and the whole thing comes undone. No, even in Ledger's scenes there's a notable lack of focus evident throughout. While surrealism has long been a hallmark of Gilliam's films, here it ultimately amounts to little more than an excuse for ornate production design and overused (and not particularly good) CGI.
Gilliam has always been a true and daring artist, often a brilliant one but more often of late a frustrating one better known for his noble misfires, bad luck and erratic track record than for his creative successes. That The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a labor of love is evident throughout, but it can also be a labor to sit through. Almost as saddening as the loss of Heath Ledger is the notion that perhaps the film could have worked so much better had he -- and what coherence the story may have had with just him playing Tony -- survived.
2.5 out of 5 Stars, 5/10 Score
