R.I.P. Robin Williams: The Fisher King Is Part Of An Incredible Legacy

The Good: Characters, Performances, Direction, General plot
The Bad: Editing
The Basics: One of the most powerful, diverse performances by Robin Williams came in The Fisher King, one of Terry Gilliam’s most profound explorations of human suffering.


Yesterday, the world lost an immense talent with the suicide of Robin Williams. For the past day, my wife and I have been strangely in shock; for her, this is the first celebrity death she has experienced that has genuinely shaken her. For me, I’ve been trying to find a way to commemorate the actor that does not lead me to a rant about how Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film can never be realized (and fuck you, American financers for not seeing the potential of that a decade ago!). One of my fondest memories of all stand-up comedy was Robin Williams doing Shakespeare: “Look! The moon, like a testicle, hangs low in the sky!” But amid his life of comedy films, what shocked me the most about the life of Robin Williams was how masterful a dramatic actor he was. In some ways, with his range and ability to portray dramatic depth and blistering emotions, the suicide of Robin Williams is unsurprising; such greatness, intelligence and emotional realization seldom comes without a price. So, to commemorate the life of Robin Williams, today I thought to take in one of his films that I had – surprisingly – not yet reviewed: The Fisher King.

Before today, I had only seen The Fisher King once, back when I was in college. I had not been prepared for Robin Williams in a serious, not-funny, role, but his portrayal of Parry caused me to entirely rethink who Williams was as an actor. Rewatching the film now, as an adult, The Fisher King is a powerful film that illustrates the talent Terry Gilliam has for direction, storytelling and getting great performances out of his actors. While Gilliam’s style is evident in almost every single shot of The Fisher King, the story he and writer Richard LaGravenese tell is much more universal than some of Gilliam’s more fantastic works. The Fisher King is intense and quirky and it is unsurprising it was nominated for many awards; perhaps the only real surprise for me was how many of those nominations did not materialize with wins. Given that The Fisher King was up against Silence Of The Lambs (reviewed here!) and that Robin Williams lost his Best Actor Oscar to Anthony Hopkins that year, there was no shame in Williams’ loss and it is all the more surprising that a genre film walked away with the uncommon Best Picture win that year. The Fisher King is a film that does not fit into any easy boxes for defining, though the dramatic elements certainly overwhelm the comedic and romantic aspects, so those expecting a Robin Williams comedy will be surprised.

Jack Lucas is a radio shock jock in New York City who is callous and hates yuppies. On the eve of his breakout from radio to television, Jack makes an offhanded comment to a caller that pushes the caller to go into a yuppie bar where he shoots several patrons and then himself. Three years later, Lucas is stuck working at a video store for his girlfriend, Anne. Drunk, despondent and only marginally functional, Jack pushes Anne away and goes out into the night where he prepares to kill himself. At the edge of the Hudson River, Jack is about to jump when two yuppie thugs come out of nowhere and begin beating him up. Before they can set him on fire, Jack is rescued by Parry, a bum who rallies other homeless people to save man getting mugged. Waking up in Parry’s home – the boiler room of an apartment building - Jack learns from the landlord that Parry’s wife was one of the victims in the shooting and his sense of guilt overwhelms him.

Parry is convinced that billionaire Langdon Carmichael’s house has the Holy Grail and he tries to enlist Jack to help him break in. But when Jack tries to pull Parry into the real world, Parry has a hallucination of the Red Knight, who makes him flee. When Parry calms down, he reveals to Jack that he is smitten with a woman he follows daily. To alleviate his guilt, Jack (with the reluctant aid of Anne) helps Parry woo the woman, Lydia. But after their successful first date, Parry’s feelings for Lydia cause him to remember the incident and he runs off into the night, where hoodlums beat him nearly to death. With Jack’s career restored, he begins to cut his ties to Anne and the comatose Parry . . . until his sense of guilt moves him to take up Parry’s quest!

The Fisher King is a character-driven story and unlike so many of Terry Gilliam’s works where Society is the villain, most of the conflict in this film comes from internal sources. Parry is an obviously tortured character from the beginning, but what makes Jeff Bridges’s Jack such an interesting character is that his humanity is evident from almost the first scene. While on his radio show, Jack is abrasive and dislikable, but the moment the news breaks about the shooting, he is shocked and culpable. The consequences of his indifference to Edwin (the shooter) breaks Jack much the way the shooting destroys Parry’s life. So, despite seeming at times like an asshole, Jack is a character who is surprisingly easy to empathize with and the viewer wants to see him grow through his interactions with Parry.

Parry is appropriately shellshocked by the night at the bar where his wife was killed. The Fisher King smartly rounds out Parry’s story with a smart backstory and a solid basis for the character to be both lost and found through his interactions with Jack. The process is not simple, nor is it easy to watch, but the film is rewarding if for no other reason than it captures both the resilience of the human spirit and a revival of the fantastic. While mythological imagery acts as a plague to Parry, the desire to take up a quest and do a good thing becomes an inspiration for Jack and plays well for the viewer.

Jeff Bridges plays both the wounded and reborn versions of Jack very well. Robin Williams gives one of the best performances of his life as Parry, credibly playing the dignified professor in flashbacks and loopy, heartbroken man for the bulk of the film. Williams plays the erratic nature of Parry well and he was obviously cast, in part, for his mastery of comic timing. But more than just being comedic relief in The Fisher King, Williams is able to capture strong emotions and Terry Gilliam captures an exceptional performance from Williams where the actor uses only one side of his face in one of Parry’s first breakdowns in the film. Williams and Amanda Plummer play off one another well-enough for Parry and Lydia to be a credible romantic couple.

What surprised me was the range actress Mercedes Ruehl brought to the supporting role of Anne. Ruehl was only familiar to me from her role of Kate Costas in the third season of Frasier (reviewed here!) and in The Fisher King she plays virtually every emotion possible as Anne. The role could be an erratic one if delivered by a less-gifted actress, but Ruehl nails every beat, easily earning her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role. While Williams is an actor I’ve come to expect some range from, Ruehl ruled every scene she was in in The Fisher King.

Depressing without being overbearing, The Fisher King holds up remarkably well (despite some troublingly skippy cuts in the film) and is a masterwork for Terry Gilliam, Mercedes Ruehl, and Robin Williams. Now, it stands as one of the crown jewels in the legacy of Robin Williams.

For other works with Robin Williams, please visit my reviews of:
The Big Wedding
Old Dogs
World’s Greatest Dad
Night At The Museum
Happy Feet
Man Of The Year
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
Bicentennial Man
What Dreams May Come
Jumanji
Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest
Awakenings
The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen

8/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Post-Apocalyptic Christian Theater: The Book Of Eli Is Dark And Troublingly Familiar.

The Good: Themes, Acting, Setting
The Bad: Plot structure is very familiar, Brutal mood
The Basics: Following an apocalypse, a man protects the last known bible in The Book Of Eli.


As I looked through my library of reviews, I was actually shocked to realize how very few films starring Denzel Washington I have actually seen or reviewed. I have long recognized him as a great actor and I have enjoyed the works I have seen that he is featured in, but her remains one of the great actors whose filmography I have limited direct experience with. So, as I debated today which of the films to knock off my “want to watch” list, it was unsurprising that The Book Of Eli with Denzel Washington leapt to the top of the list.

Recently, I saw a preview for The Book Of Eli before another film and I was intrigued. I was quite surprised that I had missed the film in theaters. Perhaps I let it pass by because I was not yet a big fan of The Walking Dead (season 1 reviewed here!) or the whole post-apocalyptic genre. Now that I am, though, I was eager to watch The Book Of Eli and for the most part it did not disappoint.

In the wake of a cataclysm, a lone man hunts a cat in a burned-out forest before wandering on to the nearest shell of a former city. After a night in the house of a hanged man, he encounters a band of ruffians on the road. After dispatching of them and witnessing a motorcycle gang kill and rape two others, he continues west to a small town of survivors. There, the local power is Carnegie – the one who hired the motorcycle gang – whose sole objective is to find a book. The man fends off an attack from the motorcycle gang’s leader when trying to get his water refilled.

In refusing to take advantage of Solara or her blind mother, the man (Eli) inadvertently reveals to Carnegie that he has the very book Carnegie has been searching the world over for. But, while Carnegie wants the book, a bible, to enslave and control, Eli moves west in search of a place where his faith might be rewarded and he can help rebuild the world. After Eli moves on, Solara follows him and he must rescue her from bandits and together the two head west, trying to elude Carnegie and his forces.

My fundamental problem with The Book Of Eli comes from how it buys into the most common conceits of the genre. The post-apocalyptic genre commonly portrays a world where man is set against every other man in a desperate fight for survival. While many of the dystopian situations intrigued me, now it has become a common genre and one where I find myself less impressed by the continuation of. I completely understand how, facing the destruction of the world we know, most people will become frustrated and fight over the last canned foods, stockpile guns and water and hunker down to defend what little they have. I get that (I have a plan for myself and my family in that regard), but the stories that take place longer after the actual apocalypse are rapidly becoming passé. The films seldom illustrate how the human spirit endures and our desire for freedom is stronger than the quest to dominate.

Thirty years after the apocalypse, it is hard to imagine even the degenerates will still believe they can get anything of use by raping and killing anyone who passes by. Far more likely, in the wake of the established world order coming to an end, after a few years of unpleasantness, the survivors hunker down in houses that they do not pay mortgages on, farm what they can grow and hunt what they can eat enough to survive. So, while the setting of The Book Of Eli - the desert wasteland of the American West – seems initially intriguing, it really is more of a cliché now than anything audacious.

That said, I like the philosophical bent of The Book Of Eli. The Book Of Eli is basically about people from the world before the war that wiped out humanity attempting to bring religion back to the world. It’s the classic story of using religion to exert power (as represented by Carnegie) vs. a person of actual faith (Eli). The Book Of Eli is laudable for taking the view that is unpopular in the current political climate that organized religion is the cause of more suffering than it is the source of joy and a positive series of guidelines for people to live by in order to live better with one another. I like that about the film.

As for the characters, they are more average than truly memorable or distinctive. Carnegie is a monolithic villain, a senseless evil who wants to dominate and exerts his power over those around him. Eli is a monolithic good, despite the methods he lives by in order to protect the book. The unfortunate character is Solara. She is a generic sidekick and rapebait, who is not given a real chance to evolve in the film.

Still, the principles in The Book Of Eli are good. Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, and Jennifer Beals each make the most out of their time on screen, even if their characters are more one-dimensional than incredible. Gary Oldman plays another villain who is well-created by the versatile actor, though the role seems more familiar than new. The same can be said for Denzel Washington; he plays Eli well, but it seems well within his established range.

Directors Albert and Allen Hughes make The Book Of Eli look good; in fact, in the case of the costumes, too good. Thirty years after the apocalypse, it is hard to believe there are no bibles, but there are (apparently) sweatshops. The clothes on many of the characters look underworn and that is a detail that is way off. The soundtrack sounded a lot like the main theme from Prometheus (reviewed here!), which actually made me respect that film just a little less for being derivative. Even so, The Book Of Eli is good, but for fans of the post-apocalyptic genre, it has very little we have not already seen before.

For other post-apocalyptic visions, please visit my reviews of:
I Am Legend
Doomsday
Jeremiah - Season 1

6/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Acquiring A Taste For Being A Goner With Tom Waits And Real Gone!

The Good: Dark, Moody, Strong Blues tradition
The Bad: Often incomprehensible, Thematically tiresome, Most vocals
The Basics: In a fairly standard - for Tom Waits - outing, Waits presents a smoky, gloomy impression of the world that is Real Gone.


Tom Waits, I'm discovering, is an acquired taste. He is a raspy-voiced, dark-themed blues singer and he seems to be an artist people either love or can live without. There are some songs by Tom Waits I like, like "God's Away on Business." There are even songs on the album Real Gone I like. But I probably fall more in the category of able to live without Tom Waits as opposed to worshiping at his altar.

Real Gone is a fairly typical Tom Waits listening experience. It is dark and moody, unrelenting in its near-incomprehensibility. Waits is an artist whose discs should come with subtitles. The album does come with a booklet containing the lyrics and some of them actually seem to match his raspy exhortations.

Waits is a blues singer and he co-wrote and produced all of the songs on Real Gone. Most of the songs contain his voice (think five-year dead corpse with laryngitis) and a guitar. There are other instruments as well, a banjo, percussion, bass. But for the most part, the essential element for Tom Waits is his voice. And it's dry.

Waits' songs are universally dark. Opening the album with "Top of the Hill," Waits sings of the exhausting task of living. And he is poetic, but poetic in a way that poets might appreciate. Simply put, he has great ability with language, but often it sounds awkward with his voice and the style of music. Take the opening lines of "Top of the Hill:" "New corn yellow and slaughterhouse red / The birds keep singing / Baby after your (sic) dead / I'm gonna miss you plenty / Big old world / With our abalone earrings / And your mother of pearl." New corn yellow, slaughterhouse red, abalone, great imagery, fine poetics, lost amid the cords and beats of the music.

In short, Tom Waits works best when experienced as a crazy beat poet, less well as a musical artist. His gloom and noise overshadows what could be decent lines and sentiments. The exception is "Hoist That Rag," which is served by the shouting and bangs of Waits.

Of the fifteen tracks, "Hoist That Rag" and "Dead and Lovely" are probably the best mix of lyrics and music. Not coincidentally, these are two tracks where the lyrics are fairly easy to actually understand.

Who will like "Real Gone?" Tom Waits fans. People who are drinking themselves to death. People wanting elevator music to die to. This is it. If you like depressing blues that you can barely comprehend, Real Gone is probably a great album. Who is likely to not like this? Well, people who don't want their music to make them want to die. Anyone who likes their depressing music more feminine or British is unlikely to be grabbed by Tom Waits. I think I'd like a book of Tom Waits' poems, but that's not Real Gone.

The best track is the chaotic, but understandable "Hoist That Rag," the weakest track is the narrative "Circus."

For other music that is eclectic, be sure to check out my reviews of:
O, Brother! Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
More Than You Think You Are - Matchbox Twenty
Sand In The Vaseline: Popular Favorites 1976 - 1992 - Talking Heads

5/10

Check out how this album stacks up against others I have read by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from best to worst work!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Mystery Of How So Many Talented Individuals Could Fail To Create Something Funny

The Good: Excellent cast, Decent concept, One or two moments of humor
The Bad: Terrible use of cast (poor acting), Simple and disappointing plot, Largely not funny!
The Basics: In a complete waste of time and talent, wonderful comic actors end up mired in a superhero dramedy fails to be funny or even entertaining.


Every now and then, there comes a film that has an awesome concept, a great cast, and a convincing trailer and it turns into such a miserable viewing experience for the viewer that it is almost enough to make one swear off movies (especially those featuring the performers in such an abomination) altogether. Mystery Men is one of those types of movies and whatever your hopes for the film are, odds are if you are a fan of any of the principle actors involved - like William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, and Ben Stiller - you will be woefully disappointed.

Champion City, a generic city in the United States, is a place populated by heroes, none greater than Captain Amazing. Captain Amazing has fallen on hard times and to make some money, he releases the villainous Casanova Frankenstein from prison. His plan soon goes awry and he ends up captured by the enemy. It then falls to a group of lesser, unimpressive superheroes to rise to the occasion to save Captain Amazing and Champion City. The fate of both is in the hands of the perpetually upset (though never usefully angry) Mr. Furious, the fork-throwing Blue Raja, the digging ace known as The Shoveller, the sardonic Bowler, the gassy Spleen, the (not really) Invisible Boy, and the inscrutable Sphynx.

The thing about Mystery Men is that in reading what I just wrote, the movie lived up to its entire potential. What I mean by that is that the only gag of substance in Mystery Men is the revelation of what the less than super powers of the characters are. So, for example, the first time the Blue Raja throws a fork, it's mildly amusing. When he does it repeatedly . . . well, it's stale by the second throw. Invisible Boy is a clever commentary; he reasons that because he is black and everyone ignores him he must be invisible. But that's the joke, it's done and in the movie it's a joke that is completely belabored.

And the less said about The Spleen the better. Yes, it's all fart jokes with him.

This is one of those terrible movies where all of the best material appears in the preview. If you've seen the trailer and enjoyed it, you've seen the cream of this movie. In fact, if you see the Smashmouth video for "All Star," you've seen the best footage from this movie - maybe it's even better without any of the dialogue.

The thing is, the characters in this film are not genuinely characters. Instead, they are jokes and once the joke is revealed (about a minute out of the movie), we're left with two hours of watching a series of jokes try to reinvent themselves over and over again. The best way to describe this movie is like seeing a high school student with a t-shirt with a phrase on it. The shirt says something like "I kiss better than your boyfriend," you read the shirt, evaluate the wearer, laugh or don't, and move on. When the person keeps coming by with that same t-shirt on, most people don't keep reading it over and over again. We got it the first time. Mystery Men is the type of one-trick pony that asks the viewer to continually reread the t-shirt, expecting that our reaction will be the same each time. And they're banking on that reaction being laughter.

Writers Bob Burden, Neil Cuthbert and Director Kinka Usher are lucky when they get the first laugh.

This is a startlingly un-funny movie for a film that has such comic talents as Paul Rubens (best known as Pee Wee Herman), Hank Azaria, Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. These are people well known for making this reviewer laugh. I like their work. Yet here they are operating where the lines are not funny, the situation is not treated as funny and the jokes are mostly simple and stupid.

Unfortunately, there's not enough in the script even to allow the genuine acting talents to break out and impress the viewer with what they can do as far as presentation. William H. Macy is a favorite of mine and he was robbed of any awards for his masterful performance in Magnolia (reviewed here!). In Mystery Men, Macy plays The Shoveller and there is not enough written for him to do anything other than deliver the few lines he has, as best he can and let the performance die its quick death. Similarly, the truly great actress Lena Olin appears briefly in Mystery Men and is not given enough to work with to actually perform.

Adding to the poor writing, terrible characters and the generally low-quality of the acting, director Kinka Usher fails to create any visual sense with this movie that the film is progressing. The pace is belabored and weighed down with continual attempts to replay the same joke and Usher fails to make the film look good while slowly killing the audience with the same stale routines.

All in all, this is a movie that is an utter disappointment that fails to produce anything worthwhile despite having the potential in much of the talent to create something unique and entertaining. Save yourself two hours of life; find something else to watch this weekend!

For other superhero films, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Super
Kick-Ass
My Super Ex-Girlfriend

2/10

For other film reviews, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Terry Gilliam's Visual Masterstroke And Heath Ledger's Final Performance Astound: The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus!

The Good: Direction, Acting, Plot, Character development, DVD (Blu-Ray) bonus features, Effects
The Bad: None
The Basics: A film by Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is an adult fable where a man liberates visitors to his roadshow through dreamscapes which remind them what is important and ties for best movie of all time in my reckoning!


Last year, something rather extraordinary happened. Yes, I had to alter my list of Best Movies Of All Time. The weirdest aspect of it might be the footnote, which is this: I think Watchmen (click here for that review) was the best film of 2009, but the moment my wife brought home the DVD of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, I realized I was seeing a movie on par with the very best film I had ever seen. So, while Watchmen might be the best movie of 2009, this is tied for best movie of all time in my pantheon of reviews.

There are so many facets to the average person that it is sometimes hard to reconcile the different aspects of them. In truth, the moment the death of Heath Ledger was announced, the cinephile beat out the human being within me and I found myself asking "What does that mean for The Dark Knight?" When I learned that The Dark Knight was not suffering as a result of Ledger's death, I became human enough to say "How horrible!" Then I learned that he died while making Terry Gilliam's latest film.

There are few directors whose works I am so engaged by that I want to see their entire pantheon of works. There are even fewer directors whose works I enjoy watching again and again such that I'll see their movies when they come out in theaters or will buy right away when they are released on DVD. In fact, only three names (and it is a decidedly eclectic collection) jump right to mind and the common element is that they are all three writer-directors and they have all three pulled off perfect films. They are P.T. Anderson, Kevin Smith and Terry Gilliam. So, when my partner brought home The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, I was thrilled because we had missed it in the theaters when it was originally released and because it was hailed as a masterpiece. In truth, Terry Gilliam's Brazil was the writer-director's masterwork, but it is impossible to watch The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus and not be blown away by the pure magic of the story and this film rivals it on every level.

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is a wealth of creativity, amazing performances and characters who resonate with the viewer long after the film is over. Now on DVD, one finds themselves wishing that Terry Gilliam would re-release the films to theaters because no matter how big one's television screen is, there must have been no experience quite like seeing this one on the big screen. Terry Gilliam paints with a giant canvass in this film and his tools are ones I have not traditionally enjoyed - Jude Law and Collin Farrell have never wowed me as they do in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus - but Gilliam gets the best out of them, while also presenting incredible performances by several lesser-known performers.

After a thousand years of life, Doctor Parnassus is dragged through London in an antiquated carnival style stage attempting to enlighten anyone who might actually pay attention to him. Accompanied by his diminutive assistant Percy, his daughter Valentina and his assistant, Anton, Doctor Parnassus bewilders most people he encounters by appearing to be a comatose man as a traveling sideshow act. But his act is far more than that, as a boy discovers when he crashes through the prop mirror in the wagon and is transported to a dreamworld where the fantastic is all around him and he has the chance to choose the direction of his life. Doctor Parnassus, however, is troubled as Valentina's sixteenth birthday is near and Mr. Nick, the devil, pops back up in Doctor Parnassus's life. While attempting to tell his daughter Valentina the truth about his past, the group rescues a man hanging from a bridge.

The stranger awakens, unsure of who he is or how he came to be hanged under the bridge. Enamored with Valentina and distrusted by Anton, the stranger - who soon comes to be known as Tony - begins to overhaul the traveling show to try to help Doctor Parnassus win his bet against Mr. Nick. As the truth comes out about Tony, Valentina's life hangs in the balance to see whose perspective: freedom or destruction those around Parnassus will choose!

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is more than just a visually spectacular film, it is a statement on society and humanity that resonates well with those who love great films, have the patience for a story's development and enjoy a story which has a timeless feel to it. Terry Gilliam has created a well-rounded film that is bound to stand the test of time, largely because it is visually innovative while telling a story which is timeless and reveals the essential human struggle. Mr. Nick, who is the devil, presents Doctor Parnassus with a very standard bet scenario which sets Parnassus up as an agent of freedom and imagination vs. conformity and temptation. The notion of sacrifice is explored thoroughly and cleverly in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.

Terry Gilliam makes the old new with this movie as the essential character struggle is a Faustian deal with the devil that has gone awry. Gilliam does a good job of setting the story up and one of the nicest aspects of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is that Gilliam does not simply tear all of the elements down to be a nonconformist. So, for example, Anton clearly has romantic feelings for Valentina from the beginning and Gilliam acknowledges that there is a very traditional attraction going on here through some wonderful dialogue between Percy and Parnassus. Similarly, when Tony appears, Mr. Nick is nearby and this sets the story up to include elements of treachery from Tony which Gilliam does an amazing job of expressing through Tony's dream sequence.

The film is also clever in the way it deals with the death of Heath Ledger and viewers who know this film was his last are likely to be surprised how little of the film he isn't in. It appears Ledger died when there were only three essential sequences left to create and Gilliam's working around it is brilliant. By establishing that in the dreamscapes of Doctor Parnassus individuals may see themselves differently, Gilliam is able to recast Tony in three dream sequences using Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell. The sequences work and they give Depp, Law and Farrell chances to utilize their talents in amazing ways, presenting clever performances unlike any others in their careers.

Most of the film is ruled by Christopher Plummer, who plays Doctor Parnassus. Plummer once again illustrates how he is an actor uninhibited by any range issues. In his portrayal of Doctor Parnassus, Plummer explores a wild range, from aged and tired to spry and feisty. He becomes lovable as Doctor Parnassus from his opening scenes where he is almost catatonic through flashbacks which characterize him as a man of faith and devotion to an ideal. All the while, Plummer is able to infuse a fatherly love for Valentina in his every look and action when costar Lily Cole is around.

Cole is an astonishing beauty and she plays off Plummer, Andrew Garfield (Anton) and Ledger exceptionally well. She has a playful quality that is innocent and rambunctious which make Valentina instantly lovable, not just a draw to the eyes. Even Verne Troyer is able to give a performance that gives him an emotional depth beyond most of his other characters. And Tom Waits is brilliant casting for Mr. Nick, easily making the devil seem almost real and complicated.

But from the moment Heath Ledger enters the film as Tony, he rules it. Ledger plays Tony first as a hapless amnesiac and later as a devious salesman and the character arc is matched by acting which makes the transitions and realizations make perfect sense. Ledger is dynamic and in his final performance, he illustrates even more depth and range than he did in The Dark Knight.

On DVD, there is an extended scene and the film looks great. Despite being called a "deleted" scene, the extra scene is actually just an extended version of one of the dream sequences in the movie which did not have special effects finished for it. Terry Gilliam also introduces the movie and there is a wonderful and thorough commentary track for it which is informative and entertaining. As well, there are casting sessions with Heath Ledger and special effects featurettes that are cool to see. There are also dozens of movie previews for this and other films. On Blu-Ray all of the above are included, plus a few extra goodies, most notably the cast and crew giving Heath Ledger a final sendoff.

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is an adult fable which reminds us that we have one life and it is wasted without a love for life. It's not possible for there to be a better tribute to an actor who died so young and this becomes a film which should be a wake-up call for millions trapped in mundane lives they cannot truly stand.

For other works creative films, please check out my reviews of:
Dark City
Zombieland
Battlefield Earth

10/10

For other film reviews, please check out my index page for a comprehensive listing by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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