My little review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I have to confess to being one of those people who falls completely in love with characters in movies. Other people can be so casual about their favourite models, singers, actors, etc. but I still get all coocoo at the thought of Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands, or James Cagney in Public Enemy! Mike thinks I'm still thirteen at heart because left to my own devices for too long, I might wind up covering my walls in posters of my movie crushes like I used to with that blonde haired Sawa kid!

It happens with men and women alike, I think it's got a lot to do with the types of characters these people play. But in other cases, it really is just something about the person's face that gets me.

Allow me to segway into the point of this post...
Tuesday night, Mike took me to see the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I've never actually seen any of Terry Gilliam's movies, except Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - which I thought was just too strange to even sit through. I've never been a fan of Monty Python, but was sort of forced to let it grow on me because my sister and my Dad and Mike all love it so, so much. So it's sort of weird that I was so obsessed with the idea of seeing this film, but something in the previews made me think of old 1930's travelling circuses and of Jessica from The Cats Pajama's favourite old film "Freaks". Plus Lily Cole has been a serious she-crush of mine ever since I saw her in this editorial alongside Marilyn Manson. She has such a Lula girl look to her and I think her huge eyes, big red hair, tiny little mouth and paler than pale skin make her look just like a procelain doll. (Do I sound creepy yet?).

Anyway, the movie was pretty great. It has some holes, and it doesn't make all that much sense, but visually it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, Freaks, Harry Potter and Hunter S Thompson's brain all mashed together. And Tom Waits playing the devil really made Mike and I happy too! Plus Lily's gypsy-esque wardrobe made me want to stack layers of paisley print shawls and skirts on myself and tie bells around my ankles! The head of hair on that girl just isn't fair. I'm gonna keep working on growing out the messy mop on my head and see about going red by the end of 2010!

Suffices to say, if you don't mind sitting through a few acid trippy moments, this movie is worth checking out, if only for it's visual appeal and the raspy sound of Tom Wait's wonderful voice! And an all star male cast including Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell (who I sort of don't like, but was okay in this movie) aren't too hard on the eyes either...