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Movie Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Well, lots of movies last time, eh? This time: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
A big meeting of known actors. Among others Heath Ledger. They had a dedication at the end of the movie.

Gotta say first: I didn't get the movie! I just didn' get it!

At the beginning, it was some of these movies ye watch with mouth open and a big "Wow". I really liked the setting, especially this old crappy circus caravan with it's little doors and windows and all this magical stuff inside. I was surprised when I discovered that the movie is set in the 21. century. I thought it's somewhen 'round - dunno - 19. century or something. But now, it was in today's London. And it started with a scene that I didn' like at all. Some drunken guys attack the jugglers just 'cause they are different. I don' like such things!

Whatever, one of them runs into that mysterious mirror and finds himself in some kinda wonderland. Like expected he takes the wrong path and is killed by - uuh - the devil with a big explosion. Nice...

The jugglers have to flee and in that night, they find "the hanged man", a weird stranger with no memories named Tony (Heath Ledger). He's coming with them and while the story goes on, it was shown that Dr. Parnassus has a deal with the devil and if he loses a bet (collect five souls first) he has to give his daughter Valentina (which falls in love with Tony) into the devil's hands. So~ Tony proves himself to be a real charmer and collects four souls - they bring some random women into that mirror wonderland and if they do not take the path of the devil, named Mr. Nick, they're purified and the soul counts!

Unfortunately, Tony is missing 'cause he's a rich guy which did something I didn' get so he was pursued by russian guys that wanted to kill him - again: I do not know why! So Tony runs into that mirror again (oh, he changes his face everytime he gets in there, by the way; first time it was Johnny Depp, than Jude law and at the end Colin Farell) to hide. The russiand follow him and when they are goin' to kill Tony, some policemen (notice: men!) dance in skirts and highheels to convince the guys from joinin' the fuzz...whatever.
But the devil is better: he impersonates the russian's mother (huh?) and the guys run under her skirt where they explode. Four souls for the devil, too. And than another one 'cause he found some girl in some alley in some random scene. So, Valentina's his property. But he does not take her with him. Weird...

Out of the mirror again, Anton (a friend of Valentina, hopelessly in love with her and damn jealous of Tony) has discovered there's something wrong with Tony. Still didn' get it. Tony himself and Valentina go into the mirror wonderland again, have a love scene (whysoever) and than everything falls apart. He sees some child and suddelny, we (the watcher) are caught in an imagination of his life with some charity goin' on. It ends with Tony beatin' up some kid that looks like Anton 'cause he entered his fantasy to warn Valentina. The crowd (in Tony's imagination) notices that he's an ass (whysoever again) and starts to hunt him down. While this, Anton got killed(?) by falling down a cliff (not before he tells the girl he loves her). Tony slaps Valentina, which now(!) is taken by the devil, and escapes to a mountain where he finds Dr. Parnassus. This guy has a second bet with Mr. Nick (remember, the devil's name): if he can kill Tony, he gets his daughter back. So he fools Tony which gets hanged by the crowd. There's something goin' on with a little pipe that Tony sticks into his throat so he cannot be strangled but ye know, I didn' get this either. Not really...let's just say that Dr. Parnassus gives him the wrong pipe, the thing cracks and Tony's dead. But the Doc does'n get his daughter. Mr. Nick tells him, she's free but he doesn' know where she is.

Dr. Parnassus wanders now through the imagination until he gets out, lookin' like a rough sleeper, finds his daughter which now has a family with Anton which is magically reborn (huh again) and than the movie is more or less over.

And as weird as my review is, so is the damn movie. It really got nice pictures. I love the settings in these imaginary worlds and I guess, now I have a thing for white pine striped suits and the carnival-esque stuff was cool, but nevertheless, I didn' understand this stuff. No, definetively not. I didn' get why Tony was pursued, why he was an ass at the end, why Anton was reborn and what the fuck was goin' on anyway....so...uhm...my conclusion: weird. Very weird. Chaotic. Nice to watch but ... hm...I cannot say it's bad or boring or something, it's just...confusing. Maybe I'm too stupid to get the message but well, not my type of movie. Not even with such actors as Heath Ledger and so on. Oh and Johnny Depp had the same face expression as always when he plays mad characters. Sad. Originally, he's a great actor, dammit, why he always choses these crazy guys to play? It's always the same now. What a shame.

As I said: nice to watch, cool pictures, the imaginary worlds are great and I loved the idea of this mirror leadin' into it. But I just didn' get the story and the message. Sorry.