January is normally the dead zone for movies, but somehow this year it has turned into theological movie month what with The Edge of Darkness at the end of the movie with Mel Gibson playing an avenging angel of a father with lines like “You’ve got to decide whether you are hanging on the cross or banging in the nails”  and  Denzel Washington’s star turn in The Book of Eli, all about how the Bible might be the key to human salvation in a post-nuked up world (shot in glorious sepia tone– stay tuned for the review of that one next week). 

But first up to bat is Terry Gilliam’s long awaited The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and what an imaginiarum it is too.   One reviewer said that if Gilliam could film other persons acid trips for money he would be a wealthy man.    This movie is not for those who like dumbed-down brainless action flicks or silly chick flicks.  It’s also not for those who prefer the Terry Gilliam of Time Bandits (or even a film like Baron von Munchausen). There are not a lot of cheap or expensive laughs in this movie.    It’s subject is more serious…. more Faustian.

It was one of the real problems with Milton’s Paradise Lost that the Devil was the most vivid and interesting character in that epic,  and sure enough in this movie as well the Devil gets his due, and more.  Tom Waits plays one of the most devilish Satan’s ever and steals scene after scene.  But here the Devil is not the nightmare figure of Faust but rather the conjurer, the trickster, the slight of hand artist, the maker of deals and bargains.  And so it seems that Dr. Parnassus made his Faustian bargain with the Devil long ago—  immortality in exchange for his only child Valentina (be my Valentine) when she comes of age at 16. 

The movie’s plot essentially revolves around the old sot Dr. Parnassus trying to bargain or buy, weasel or work his way out of the original deal.  And he has help— Parnassus is played by Christopher Plummer, and his help comes in the form of the late Heath Ledger (in his last film) with aid from his friends Johnny Depp and Colin Firth, and even Jude Law, all doing hommages to their fallen friend.   In other words,  the film does not lack for good actors.   What it lacks is a good plot, good dialogue, and some good editing, even though it is only 2 hours and 2 minutes long.

Nowadays films that are imaginative and fall into the seductive world of CG to spin out their fantasies are a dime a dozen.  It is hard to remember that the Python troop in the 70s in films like ‘And Now for Something Completely Different’ were some of the first to blend animation with live action.  Now, especially in the wake of Avatar’s celestial CG, a movie like this is not all that ‘wow’ producing.  It is a PG-13 film which is stark and dark in many ways. 

Would we all really dance with the devil in order to have everlasting life, or even for a long spate of pleasure?   Would we really sacrifice our only child for immortality? And what’s all this business about the mind of Dr. Parnassus being the portal or facilitator through which one passes into one’s own dreams and nightmares?   Inquiring minds would like to know.   The untidiness of the film is such that we are not provided with answers. 

We are asked to sip a theological gumbo that has its striking flavors but we have no notion of whether it might well be nutritious and please do not ask about the ingredients thrown into the soup pot.  This gumbo seems to be one part pantheistic Buddhism one part medieval Christianity and one part Tarot cards.   Its not a movie to take your children to— it will bore or bewilder them, but even adults may be forgiven for leaving this film scratching their heads.   Perhaps the next theological film on the docket will offer more theological clarity, or at least a clearer and better plot line, which is a consummation devoutly to be wished after seeing this film.