Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is the power behind a traveling carnival show that on its surface is past its prime. The young Anton (Andre Garfield) is an ineffective hawker, Dr. Parnassus’s daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) is nearly sixteen and dreaming of an escape to an ordinary middle-class life, and voice of wisdom Percy (Verne Troyer) can only do so much. However, as a belligerent passerby learns, the power of the show is quite real and can send patrons on a glorious adventure through their imagination before depositing them at a soul-endangering choice. The “good” doctor has already made a poor choice or two in the past, and as the film starts, the Devil (Tom Waits) is ready to collect. Magic notwithstanding, the situation seems hopeless before the arrival of a mysterious hanged man (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Collin Farrell).
Heath Ledger’s last film and Terry Gilliam’s latest, the Imaginarium has been out for a few years now, so this post will contain vague spoilers to allow more complete discussion. For those leaving the post at this point, I’ll leave you with a song that gets at the story from Valentina’s point of view.
The stellar cast delivers, the Imaginarium itself shows off Gilliam’s visual genius, and the film contains thought-provoking theological and political critiques. I think the most interesting conflict is between a man largely broken by living with the consequences of his mistakes and another who constantly reinvents himself.
However, the Gilliam makes a critical mistake with increasing consequence as the film ends: he denies Valentina agency. I think this critique may best come from a film made a few years earlier: MirrorMask. That film starts with a similar premise: a young woman raised in a carnival environment who desperately seeks escape. She even makes youthful mistakes of spite and at times is dependent on others for rescue. However, the hero of that story consistently maintains agency while Valentina is explicitly objectified as the men of the piece compete for her love and her soul. Even trustworthy Percy says that it’s a mistake to tell her the truth and Tony refers to her as the “prize” without the other characters objecting. I don’t think Valentina needs to be the protagonist nor shouldn’t be allowed to make terrible choices; everyone else certainly does the latter. However, the other characters pursue their own interests while towards the end Valentina largely reacts, bouncing from one patron to another.
The end of the film pivots on the fact that, charmingly, the Devil is a bit too fond of Parnassus to do his job properly. Unfortunately, I’d say the same is true of Gilliam’s plotting. Dr. Parnassus pulls a clever trick near the end, but the story is contorted in order to increase that moment’s importance. I’ll allow the fiendish Mr. Nick to pull his punches, but the big reveal on Tony is over the top, nice guy Anton never grapples with his worst moment, and Valentina explicitly rejects the chance to run her own life.
The price Dr. Parnassus pays and his final relationship with his daughter works, even if I find her end state unsatisfying. I don’t think the problem is that Gilliam is too easy on an alter ego character. Unlike Ghost Writer, which also critiques Tony Blair, I don’t think the film falls apart both morally and thematically if you treat the protagonist as a stand in for the director. Instead, I think the problem is that Dr. Parnassus’s prominence in the end undercuts the arcs of the other characters, a problem that probably would have been avoided if the story had been thought through from Valentina’s perspective.
Source: Think I bought this for myself; correct me if I’m wrong.
Image Source: Promotional image via Wikipedia.
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