Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: Charles McKeown, Terry Gilliam.
"Please...no more choices!"
Gilliam's latest feature centers around a Dr.'s crazy machine that allows people to physically travel into their own imagination. Actually, there isn't really a machine the power comes from the good doctor's mind, the machine is just like a needle. The film grapples with a familiar themes for Gilliam: Free will. The struggle between the so called high road and so called low road, the two forces that keep the universe together, the symbiotic relationship that God and the Devil have. One cannot exist without the other. Another theme, which unfortunately wasn't played out as much, is the idea of story telling as the center of human existence. For, indeed, one can see how Gilliam has been highly influenced not only by fairy tales but religious tales and myths as well. The free will theme is carried well throughout the film. however, it fails to say anything as unique as say Time Bandits, although the ending did remind me of the ambiguous ending of Time bandits, this is a good thing.
The plot is structured as a long on going competition between the doctor (Christopher Plummer) and the devil (Tom Waits). The devil is constantly making bets with the doctor, the first being that the first to achieve 12 followers using their own methods win. The devil emphasized danger, while the doctor stuck with the power of imagination. Doctor wins bet, and gets as his prize, immortality. However, he still ages and consequently becomes alone and feeble very quickly. The doctor falls in love a few centuries later, but of course he is old and the women is young, so the devil gives him his youth back (for a time) on the condition that any children wrought from the relationship between the doctor and the women go to him when they turn 16. Lo and behold, a child! Now, the child is approaching 16 and the devil wants a new bet, first to five souls wins it all. There's also a semi-redemption plot involving Heath Ledger's character Tony, but I've already gone a little too long. The strange thing about this plot is that it takes a long time to write down, giving the illusion of complexity, but it's really not that hard to follow. It reads like some sort of fairytale, and it works well enough. Definitely not the best of Gilliam's scripts, but better than most films on average.
Tom Waits is hands down the best actor in this whole film. It's like he really is the devil, it was the role he was born to play. And yes, this is in fact Heath Ledger's last film, he actually died while it was in production. What this means is, they didn't get all the scenes. Amazingly, the re-writes and changes are so good that if I didn't know that the lead actor died, I wouldn't have guessed that the re-writes were forced. This is a testament to how good of writing and story telling Gilliam is, and should have received some sort of award just for this. Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrel all take the place of Ledger, in different imaginations, Tony is imagined to look different. So, because all of the character establishing scenes include Ledger himself, this works very very well. The writing is a bit campy at bits, but has some very good lines as well.
Visually, as one can imagine, there is a lot going on. GIlliam's canted camera is back, although somewhat out of place in most of the film, save for the few scenes taken in some London back street. The imaginations themselves are visual very very cool in terms of kinetics, it's just great to see what worlds people dwell into. However, do not expect the best CGI on the market here, as Gilliam's ambition might have overstretched his budget. It's not even remotely on par with some of the advance stuff, but then again, who says that someone's imagination should or even can look realistic? The massive abundance of color light make it look extremely cartoonish. Personally, I liked it, even though I tell it was a green screen and sometimes the graphics weren't that impressive, I just enjoyed it from an art perspective: the images are very cool. It leaves you wanting to see more, more bizarre landscapes and fairy tale surprises. The soundtrack is a mediocre score that is pretty uninteresting, but then again Gilliam has never been known for his mind blowing soundtracks. I personally think he works better without a soundtrack, but this seems to make audience uncomfortable.
This film is almost a kid's movie, despite the few instances of foul language. It's a magical fairy-tale journey into the depths of imagination. It doesn't have the cynical absurdist edge that Brazil or Fear and Loathing did, it's more innocent than that. I enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure that most people will if they rent it.
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