The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

So, last night I went to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a Terry Gilliam film. It was a very different crowd than the night before for Bright Star. For that it was mostly an older crowd and the theater was maybe two thirds full. Last night, however, it was a very young crowd and the announcer declared us very lucky because there were over a thousand people who tried to get in. I did not feel the film deserved this huge popularity difference as I felt that Bright Star was by far the superior film.

Let me explain for those of you who don't already know the story of this film. The Imaginarium was the last film that Heath Ledger worked on and it was incomplete when he died. Some of his friends offered to step in and fill his roll in order to get his final film finished. These friends are, in order of appearance, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Ferrell. Now you might think it would be difficult to pull this off but this film actually lends itself to this quite nicely and I don't think anyone who doesn't know would even guess that this wasn't the plan all along.
The story is of Doctor Parnassus(Christopher Plummer) and his traveling Imaginarium. He is immortal as he has made a deal with the devil(Tom Waits) to give him his child(Lily Cole) upon her 16th birthday. The devil comes to collect but being fond of betting he offers a new bet as a chance to save her. I will say no more of the plot as I hate spoilers myself.

There are a lot of things that I like about this movie. Sets, costumes, characters, the premise. I would not give it a high rating, though. It lacked focus. There was a very strong plot and that should have been the driving force behind the whole film. I think the makers got a bit sidetracked by the wonderful fantasies they were creating and neglected the story. I don't think it would have made any difference if Heath Ledger had been the only one playing his character. I would not have liked it better.
I am not saying you shouldn't see it, because it is far from a failure. I just feel that there was so much waisted potential, that it was so close to being something really good. It just fell a bit short in my eyes.