GENRE: Fantasy/Adventure
RATING: PG-13 for violence, language and sensuality
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 2 minutes
STARRING: Christopher Plummer (Up, Inside Man),
Heath Ledger (Dark Knight, Brothers Grimm)
DIRECTOR: Terry Gilliam (Brothers Grimm, 12 Monkeys)
WRITERS: Terry Gilliam (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas)
Charles McKeown (Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
PLOT: A traveling show allows audience members to choose between light and darkness in a contest between the devil and Dr. Parnassus.
FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 Going in I expected Heath Ledger’s role in the film to be minimal but he is in a very large chunk of the movie. He does great work here, not Joker great, but still.
2 The weaving in of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell is pretty ingenious. Gilliam did good with a tricky situation, after Ledger’s death.
3 Musician Tom Waits (Coffee & Cigarettes) does an excellent job as the devil, Mr. Nick. He has this wonderful mix of sliminess and sinister charm that’s fun to watch.
4 The imaginarium is amazing. The special effects and art direction in the imaginarium are creative and captivating. Spellbinding and trippy stuff.
5 Unfortunately, they don’t spend enough time in the imaginarium. A lot of the film takes place in the ‘real world’ which also has its own moments of weirdness. I didn’t like the ‘real world’ stuff as much. The modern morality tale didn’t work for me.
RECOMMENDATION: Catch it on DVD Ledger fans
UPCOMING REVIEWS: The Book of Eli
No comments:
Post a Comment