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Heath Ledger's last film releases today
by Ishita Sood - January 8, 2010 - comments
The film was temporarily suspended after Ledger’s death and his role was recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.
New York, January 8 -- The much anticipated film of legendary actor Heath Ledger, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, hit theaters today.
The movie, which was earlier due to release on June 6, 2009, has Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, and Heath Ledger in the lead.
The film was temporarily suspended after Ledger’s death and his role was recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. It follows the leader of a travelling theater troupe through a magical mirror.
The review
Directed by Terry Gilliam of ‘Twelve Monkeys’ fame, the film has Christopher Plummer playing Doctor Parnassus, the immortal leader of the traveling troupe.
The bearded Parnassus is a yogi-magician with a 16-year-old daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). Parnassus leads Anton, a sidekick and associate (Andrew Garfield) along with a dwarf named Percy (Verne Troyer) beyond reality with the help of the magical mirror (imaginarium).
Parnassus, who is guided by the devil (Tom Waits), is in a fix when the devil targets his daughter. The troupe is then joined by an eccentric outsider named Tony (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell), and together they set through parallel worlds in order to rescue the doctor’s girl.
The plot is ghastly and funny, echoing the basic theme of immortality. The designs for “Imaginarium” are said to be very inspirational, the costumes having been taken from Victorian toy theaters, Buddhism and tarot cultures.
Ledger’s performance
Ledger’s performance in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is smart and natural. Terry Gilliam has carefully crafted the actor’s absence and presence both; bringing him back to life.
“One just leapt and hoped for the best," Gilliam says. "Heath was rewriting the film for us, posthumously. His spirit was with us, and the movie gods must have been watching over us.”
The sequences which were not shot with Ledger were quickly solved and done by Gilliam and his team.
“The process of making a movie is that you write it, you spend months and months preparing it, and then you start shooting it. I'm bored by the time we get on the set. So when things go wrong or things change, you really have to puzzle it out. I do love thinking on my feet,” confessed Gilliam.