The writing credits of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” attribute the story to Terry Mckeown and and Charles Gilliam — a purposely playful mixup of the actual authors, director Terry Gilliam, and screenwriter Charles McKeown, but unintentionally, this speaks to the convoluted mess that is the script.
Subtitled “based on a painfully original story,” ‘Imaginarium,’ is kind of painful in its own right and not exactly the fitting tribute to end Heath Ledger’s career, nor a comeback for filmmaker Terry Gilliam — or at least, certainly not on paper.
We almost threw out the script after reading its first confusing 20 pages, but then figured we should try and make through it. While it became less of a slog as time progressed and actually kind of funny in spots, we don’t have the highest expectations in the world. The teaser trailer that came out a few weeks ago looked pretty awful too.
We consulted others and their reaction was pretty similar. Our buddy and sometime-contributor Nick Plowman from Fataculture was even more down on it then we were and had very little positive things to say about it. “I actually don’t know why I bothered reading it all, or at least I have no idea why I finished reading it. Waste of my time, in a big way,” he said in a email.
What’s it about? Let’s quote Gilliam himself from the teaser trailer. “The film begins in modern London. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is a thousand years old [and] has the power to expand your mind beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed of. For centuries he’s been traveling the planet with his traveling theater, ‘The Imaginarium.’ Parnassus is a prophet; he has a secret he made once long ago with the Devil (Tom Waits) — and that secret will possibly destroy all their lives or possibly save them. It depends on who they meet … and who they meet is a man named Tony (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law), hanging from a bridge in London. They save his life. Is he there to save them? Or is he working for the devil? These are the things we unravel as the story unfolds.
And that’s pretty much exactly it. To flesh it out a bit, Parnassus is sort of a washed-up, drunk spiritual prophet/magician and his deal with the devil is catching up with him. Almost on cue, the script begins to make slightly more sense/ become marginally more enjoyable to read when Ledger’s Tony character shows up — thank god for that. Tony has his own secrets, but his strengths are a massively charming aura that helps traveling ‘Imaginarium’ show get back on its feet and achieve some of its mystical goals, but at times you sort of have to trust that the script is a leap of faith as all these dream sequences sound impossible unless visualized (and to further the being-mystified point, you can’t really visualize them on the page and a lot of it adds to further befuddlement).
Things that could be potentially great about ‘Imaginarium’? Tom Waits’ Mr. Nick (The Devil) character is pretty great and has some choice lines. This could a nice little turn for him if he doesn’t overdo it. Another potential highlight is Andrew Garfield who plays the stuttering love-struck Anton, one of Parnassus’ assistant. If you’ve seen “Boy A,” you know Garfield put in one of the most notable breakthrough performances of 2008 so far. And Ledger’s capricious and affable Tony character could be another sly (final) turn for the actor too, but since he died before filming was completed and was replaced by three actors (Depp, Law and Farrell), it remains to be seen if he’ll actually be onscreen for even half the film.
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” wasn’t terrible per se, but for comparison, it’s easily the weakest script we’ve read all year and we’ve read a ton in 2008. Let’s hope Gilliam can make some chicken soup out of the chicken shit that’s mostly on the page.