I Love Gilliam. Thats Terry Gilliam. His last movie that I truly loved was 12 Monkeys...that film was 15 years ago. Since then he made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is a real good film, but after that the hurricane of evil has fallen on this genius filmmaker. Now back to IODP or I will call it Dr.P, Will just be known as Heath Ledger's last film, I can see Gilliam's world crumbling as this film is watched, maybe years from now when people forget Ledger as we all have forgotten Gary Coleman, then people will see this film without the pretense that either "what could have been" from this film, or maybe this film should have been shelved and forgotten. If you are a fan of Gilliam you will get a mix of Baron Von Munchhausen, Time Bandits, Brazil, Fear and Loathing, 12 Monkeys, and Brothers Grimm (Heath Ledger starred).
This film falls apart when we no longer like the Tony character, Gilliam had to let us as the audience believe that as Tony (Heath) goes through the mirror, his face changes and maybe his character, first we see Johnny Depp, who does real well, then Jude Law, who wears way too much make up and looks Spanish, but he does well...unfortunately Colin Farrel, who I like as an actor, is forced to be Tony last...the last Tony takes an odd turn for what came before...we fall in love with Tony and feel for his character...and maybe thats because we know what happened to Heath Ledger in real life...but I think Johnny Depp should have been Tony last...just because its easier for us as the Gilliam audience to see Johnny Depp act against character type...and Farrell does not have this ability.
The effects are ok..you would think that once Heath died, the insurance would have kicked in and then the ability to have better CGI would have been a real possibility...Gilliam always does better with miniatures and less CGI..Brazil looks better from almost 30 years ago, then parts of this film.
The rest of the cast is really well acted, Tom Waits plays the devil, Christopher Plummer Plays Dr. P...and Lilly Cole does a real great role as the daughter. Even Verne Troyer acts well...the real ending hearkens back to the ending of Time Bandits...but no Heath Ledger...it just ends..because this film is really about Dr. Parnassus...remember that and you cant go wrong.
As this playlist is being written, I am also going through all the extras on the Blu-ray...Gilliam does the best commentary for my money...and this commentary I am half way through...you can tell that Gilliam did what he had to do with this film...is was to be a culminating film about his entire career..but turned out to be about Heath...too bad. We can wait now and see if Gilliam's vision for his new film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote can make it.
The adventures of Baron Von Munchausen was on tv the other day and I got trapped watching it, mostly because I always forget how much I enjoy that film until it's on again. That's the first movie I remember seeing Sarah Polley in (can't wait to see her in Splice). When I clicked your link to the Terry Gilliam Fanzine website I noticed Tideland on the list. I admit, I don't invest nearly as much as you guys in the dissection of movies. I'm really terrible about learning all the little trivial things like the name of the director. I seem to recall you saying on podcast 2.0 that you hated the movie Tideland (God I hope I'm not remembering that wrong). It didn't even register as something I'd seen because I couldn't place the title. (Forgive me if this is riddled with typos, I'm laying on my back and the kitty just laid down on my chest with his ass in my face and now I'm typing half blind).
ReplyDeleteAnyways, when I saw the Gilliam page, I realized, "Hey, I saw that movie." It was weird, right? I remember thinking, WTF, for about an hour and a half. How good was that Ferland girl at playing creepy/weird/crazy. That's my whole review, I guess. I thought that was gonna go somewhere, but I guess not. Besides, I'm covered in cat butt now, so typing has become physically uncomfortable.