Film

It’s tempting to blame the failure of The Imaginarium on the death of Ledger during filming. Even if you figure out a way to use the limited footage (Gilliam works a trick involving help from multiple actors), a tragedy like that is bound to throw a pall over the project. But Gilliam’s problems on this project begin earlier, with the script. Gilliam throws his usual crazy imagery at the film, but he seems distressingly unable to make all his novelties and wild ideas cohere.

The premise is vintage Gilliam: Dr. Parnassus (Plummer) has been engaged in a centuries-long game with Mr. Nick, a.k.a. the devil. Parnassus has won eternal life but owes Nick the hand of any daughter he might conceive. (Handy tip: The devil knows how to rig a wager.) Parnassus has wandered through the centuries running a traveling show out of a wagon. The purpose of the show is to entice people through a magic mirror into a world of imagination. All this is somehow linked to Parnassus’s vitality, though given the haphazard way key information is tossed off in muttered asides, one could easily miss the connection. Imaginarium, like the show Parnassus puts on from his wagon, is a jumble of missed cues and bad stage magic.