Heath as Tony Shepherd, with a sore neck after getting strung up by loansharks to the underside of a bridge.
Trailer: http://www.doctorparnassus.co.uk/
I squealed at Johnny Depp again when he appeared in the Imaginarium the very first time! Darn, I waited an hour for him to show up and just when my hope of ever seeing him in a proper movie script was dying, he skipped into the mirror of magical proportions and revealed his alter personality in the dream world. Sooooo HOT! when he daintily pranced off some lily pads, which was one customer's imagination, and siddled up to her as she admired herself in a mirror. Then flourishing his masquerade mask and finally showing himself to be the persuasive sweet talker version of Tony Shepherd, I whooped for the next 5 mins and gushed crazily as the words came flowing smoothly out of his honey-combed lips. Woots!
For the scene where Johnny appeared, he was playing the part of swindler Tony but whilst in the mirror of Imaginarium, he altered to be the best of a cunning yet sincere Tony split-personality, trying to sell inner peace and getting customers to part with their valuables and cash, which he succeeded easily. The idea was to get as much money as possible for their little play and rickety stage, but Dr Parnassus had far more pressing matters in mind than those trivials.
Dr Parnassus had to clear his wager with the devil or just sell his daughter’s life to him on her 16th birthday in exchange for the doctor’s own immortal life. A bad choice he made 600 years ago. And since then, the devil had paid him many a visit to spend his eternity whilst roaming the earth. Then a new wager that whoever got the 1st 5 souls (by means of the Imaginarium, on whether the person makes the right choice n becomes reborn or makes the wrong choice n goes straight to hell) will get the girl. Valentino, of course, is vexxed and later throws a fit at her father for accepting the bet. Find out if she lives or not.
Her admirer Anton, fellow actor for the stage performance of Dr Parnassus’ Imaginarium the travelling caravan, stays on for her sake but finally meets his love rival when Tony Shepherd, a philantrophist and eventually philanderer, crosses their path and keeps a low profile by helping them with their show. He is played by Heath Ledger, the finest performance yet after his disturbing but stunning portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. You could see an element of demented nervousness and professional pretence from the Joker when he acts as Tony, and you can imagine he was still on drugs when he changed his acting style from gallant knight in A Knight’s Tale to timid ghost hunter in Brothers Grimm (What an idiot, what a waste of talent.)This is the film he never completed, hence the use of other actors’ faces to represent his alter egos. They are, in order, Heath, Johnny when the first real customer entered he followed into the Imaginarium and he became a smooth talking salesman, Jude Law in his own Imagination, and Colin Farrel the evil personality, running away from the press, in his own Imagionation too.
Oh whatever… If you want the plot, go watch the DVD release! I’m supposed to talk about Johnny and how he fared for the 5 min scene. I thought it was the coolest 5 mins worth of script he ever said. Even when it didn’t seem much of a plot where he had to lead the first customer in a dance for her entertainment, he seemed to remain suave about it cos he seemed uncomfortable taking Heath’s role while in the Imaginarium. What rocked was that he was given the good guy alternate personality for Tony Shepherd. But while this scene was detached from the rest of Tony’s appearances in the Imaginarium, other anomalies would be spotted too as the movie is very abstract and subject to higher criticism. Johnny would have tugged more heart strings if he were the one hanging from the post tho, but he couldn’t play the bad guy for the end scene. It’s not him.
Watch Dr Parnassus only if you have the attention span of a housewife to Hong Kong dramas. Warning: not a show to be watched with your friends, especially when they don’t know who’s Johnny. I’d rate this a good 3.5 out of 5.
