Impressions before seeing it
Terry Gilliam is one of the most interesting directors in the business, and I love me some fantasy film.
How was it?
In a traveling stage show, Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his crew invite customers inside their magic mirror, where they can visit the worlds of their own imaginations and then sell their soul to either the doc or the devil (Mr. Nick, played by Tom Waits), who are competing for souls. They are lucky that Heath Ledger completed the scenes that he did before his untimely death, because it actually became more of a convenience than an inconvenience. Heath finished all of the "real world" scenes, so he only becomes one of the other three actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) after going inside the mirror, where imagination is allowed to change a face, so there was no awkward inconsistency that made Heath's death noticeable.
As for the movie itself, it has the kinds of things you can expect from Terry Gilliam: rich, imaginative visuals, some dark and twisted humour, and an underlying feeling that not everyone is going to like it. I did, though. The story was fun, and while Gilliam has admitted in the past that he is not the best at character creation, I think he did a fine job here; the personalities feel a little more fleshed out than in some of his earlier works.
Recommendation
You'll probably enjoy it if you are a fan of Terry Gilliam's films. It may even be one of his best. I've heard complaints that it is confusing and disorganized, but personally I did not find that to be the case.
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