On the surface, the protagonist, Doctor Parnassus(Christopher Plummer), is an anachronistic sideshow magician. He pilots aone-wagon, horse-drawn Victorian-era carnival act, complete with paintedbackdrops and creaky stage machinery, around a contemporary England ofdreary public housing, throbbing dance clubs and posh shopping malls. His showis a relic from a slower-going past when imagination wasn’t spelled out insoftware programs. The public scoffs at such old-fashioned stuff. The gooddoctor and his loyal band of performers (a little person, his lovely daughtercast as a nymph and an actor dressed as Mercury) lead a penurious, vulnerableexistence.
But although Parnassushas been reduced to numbing his sorrows with gin, he’s a man with adistinguished historyand a long one. A thousand years earlier he was an adept,a monk in an Eastern land who succumbed to a wager from that skeptical oldtrickster, the devil (Tom Waits). Parnassusattained immortality through the deal, but the contract contained too much fineprint, too many strings tied to the abyss.
After Parnassusturns over the hangman card in his tarot deck, his crew comes upon Tony (Ledgeret al.) hanging from a bridge. There are no coincidences in The Imaginarium. Tony claims amnesia butproves sharp in the ways of contemporary marketing, andgrateful that his lifewas savedtransforms the doctor’s show into a hipper, postmodern experience.But no one in The Imaginarium canescape the consequences of past decisions; the magic mirror at the heart of Parnassus’ act is a gateway into each person’sfantastically displayed dream lifea realm as dangerous as the world outside.
Gilliam employs digital technology to conjure up themagic mirror, endowing each journey with a distinct look that magnifies thedesires and anxieties of the travelers crossing to the other side. The landscapeof the imagination has seldom looked this good in recent films, probablybecause too many computer animators lack imagination.
Although TheImaginarium is made possible by technology, the movie is anchored by greatacting. Outstanding are Plummer, investing Parnassuswith the ravaged dignity of a comic-tragic Shakespearean, and Waits, who playsthe devil as a gravel-voiced chain smoker dressedlike a seedy music hallperformerin a black bowler hat. Ledger and surrogates are capable but haveless to do. The story is Faust for the 21st century, with the doctor dealingwith the devil on a gray playing field where none of the next steps are clearlymarked. The show belongs to Plummer and Waits.
Along with its Faustian theme, The Imaginarium of DoctorParnassus is a sharply critical look atcontemporary society from Gilliam, a director who fears that the magic of lifehas shrunk into a branding strategy. The customers who pass through the magicmirror can seldom visualize anything but violence and materialism. The signprominently displayed in a warehouse superstore, “Only 364 Shopping Days LeftUntil Next Christmas,” says it all.