The Bloggomist: The Local Boy
Film Review

“His life was the saddest poetry.”  I remember those lines catching my eyes from the header of a LA Times article my father dropped next to my breakfast plate one morning.  ”Read it,” he grunted, filling a mug with steaming black coffee. “I haven’t come across such good writing in the Times in awhile.  Take a look.”  I’m ashamed to admit I don’t read the paper very often, but when someone from Columbia’s English Ph.D program — who reads dictionaries for leisure — tosses “good writing” your way, you read it.  So I did.  Two years later, watching Flux‘s advance screening of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at Nike’s Montalbán, that strikingly tragic line echoed in my mind like a haunting overture.

The article was about an old blind man who had died alone in his home.  He had passed alone and forgotten, mummified in the warm confines of his living room by the time the police discovered him 13 months later.  The piece, I discovered, was indeed beautifully written, a seeming misappropriation on such a temporary medium.  But what struck me most was the piercing tragedy of this man’s fate and the misfortunes leading up to it.

I couldn’t help shake this same feeling as I watched Heath Ledger in his final silver-screen moments.  In fact, if anyone asked me how I felt about his performance I would give them one word:

Disturbed.

I confess that no matter how hard I tried, I could not put out of my mind the rumors that his previous role as the Joker had taken a toll on Ledger that sent him on a spiral towards his ultimate doom.  It was hard for me to tell whether his antsy, almost manic behavior was simply an intentional portrayal of his character or the unconscious effect of a role some say he sometimes had trouble separating from reality.  There were even certain parts the familiar guttural spurt that characterized the Joker’s now-iconic speech seemed to break out randomly.  I could only shake my head, take a deep breath, and continue.  Was I watching the telltale breakdown of the actor?  How could such talent, such promise, be lost in such an unnatural fashion?  We mourned not simply because we loved him. It was as if death had robbed us right before the honeymoon, way before even the real stuff.  We were just beginning to embrace his greatness.  And now all I could think of was his tragedy.  His every movement, every move spoke the same words in my mind.  ”His life was the saddest poetry.”

I was relatively unimpressed with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  I’m not sure if it’s because of the hype preceding the film.  Maybe it was expectations created by a resumé like Terry Gilliam’s.  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys – Monty Python?  Please excuse me for expecting something moderately ground-shaking.  Or maybe it was the star-studded cast that could have made the Oceans 11 (12, 13) team jealous.  With Ledger, Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell I was surprised I wasn’t watching heads in the audience explode with each passing scene.  Then there was the passing of Heath Ledger which lay (perhaps unfairly) the lofty label of being the beloved actor’s last work squarely on the shoulders of an already highly anticipated project.

Whatever the case, the film felt flat and uncompelling, more of a smorgasbord of visuals and fantasy with no real driving plot or purpose.  We come up on the traveling show near the end of an agreement between the apparently enlightened Doctor Parnassus, played by the excellent Christopher Plummer, and the Devil (Tom Waits), who in turn for his gift of eternal life, Parnassus must give up his 16-year old daughter Valentina.  Somewhere along the way, they stumble across Tony (Ledger) hanging unconscious underneath a rainy bridge.

The identity and back story behind these characters are what really started my frustration.  Who exactly was Parnassus, and how did it come about that he was chosen as a worthy opponent and strangely endearing plaything of the Devil?  We also spend nearly three quarters of the movie trying to figure out who Tony is, and even after we do, what is his greater significance in the story, and why does the Devil care whether he lives or dies?  The peculiar relationship between Parnassus and the Devil is probably the only really enjoyable thing you can dig out of all the confusion.  The film isn’t terribly long, but the way the story plods along you’d swear you’d been sitting there for over two hours.

What made matters worse was how Gilliam tried to stick in random events of cheesy humor, usually sparked by Mini-Me Verne Troyer, which further seemed like a backhanded way to produce cheap laughs with the cute midget.  It was in moments like these that I had to catch myself and remember the two projects separating his latest venture from Fear and Loathing were Tideland and The Brothers Grimm.  If any of you have seen The Brothers Grimm, and I’m sure most of you have, lured in by the likes of Matt Damon, Ledger, and Monica Bellucci, you will remember that it was a pathetically cheesy, embarrassingly unbelievable film that evoked nearly every cliché line and cop-out ending in the book.  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, unfortunately, seemed to suffer a similar fate in the ending department. Maybe Ledger’s death contributed to the abrupt finale, but you’d think that with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell coming to the rescue you could salvage an ending that didn’t have so many holes.

This was not Heath Ledger’s best performance.  To be honest, I’m not even sure if it was one of his more notable ones. To be fair, he may not have had the chance to make it so.  Push come to shove, The Dark Knight set the bar impossibly high, and Ledger’s portrayal of Tony didn’t seem a far shot from Casanova.  I think many could agree with me that Ledger was just getting a feel for what he was really capable of when he left us.  Unfortunately, the last piece to his legacy wasn’t as stunning as the second-to-last, but that’s fine when you think about how he’d already succeeded in creating one of the most memorable characters we will ever see on film — and has one of those funny gold statues to prove it.

So while I think a good handful of critics and biased viewers will romanticize the project and heap on accolade, the truth is that The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was a rather pedestrian film that had the feel of a counterfeit Tim Burton piece.  While it’s not bad, it’s not really that good, either.  Don’t waste too much time on this movie; I have word Avatar and Broken Embraces are much more worthy ventures.

Much thanks to Flux and Nike Sportswear at The Montalbán for the opportunity to preview such an anticipated film. As usual the venue, music, conversation, food, drinks, and after-party were worth the visit in themselves.

***
“He Died In Vast Isolation” by Erika Hayasaki, LA Times.

To see more from Caleb Lin, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/caleb/