I finally saw this film today. For some reason, I was of the opinion that it came out last year. Maybe it was supposed to originally? I don't know, but it's playing first-run cineplexes at the moment (though the dinkiest, afterthoughtiest little screens in those cineplexes), so me and the lady went to check it out, and I'm glad I did.Despite rumblings that this was a troubled film (as all of Terry Gilliam's movies are in some way) even apart from the shocking death of Heath Ledger, I found this latest installment in Gilliam's ongoing "triumph of the imagination" series to be delightful and weird from its opening to its end.
It's not a movie you can really approach looking for realism or logic. It's a fable, as Gilliam's greatest movies all are, and you have to simply accept certain storytelling conventions when you're watching a fable: people will make rash decisions, and the story will take odd turns dictated by nothing more than the whimsical logic of the fable. If you've seen any of Gilliam's great movies (Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), then you understand this. If you claim to be a fan of his work, you should expect it.
A word on the CGI effects of the Imaginarium itself: I've heard criticism that they look fake, to which I say: of course they fucking do. If Gilliam had made this movie 20 years ago, the Imaginarium scenes would all be realized with plywood standups and marionettes. I wouldn't expect his movies to have lost their hand-crafted, playhouse look just because time and budget have forced his hand on the CGI issue.
Anyway, I enjoyed the film. It's light and playful, and though it has its moments of darkness, they never overshadow the whole. Ledger's final performance is not as bravura as his turn as the Joker, but it's nice to see him one last time, and the special appearances of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell as otherwordly versions of his character serve as genuinely heartfelt tributes to his lost talent.
If you have any fondness at all for Gilliam's thematic obsessions and puppet-theater asthetics, you should see this before it disappears in a whisp of magician's smoke.
3 comments:
I'm glad you liked it. Though I think our bet is now off I'll maybe check to see which movie makes more. Good review by the way. I'll be watching this one as soon as I get out of my work prison.
@Helmsman
Yeah, our bet hinged upon this movie coming out the same day as WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, which I swear it was originally scheduled to do. Both movies basically bombed, so I don't even think it matters any more, though I liked both of them a lot.
That's cool. I haven't got a chance to watch wild things yet. Maybe I'll take tomorrow and see if Parnassus is playing out of town.
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