(2010; English, Russian, French) Here's the riddle of the wager between the Devil and Dr Parnassus: If your daughter (whom you call "Scrumpy") upon her sixteenth birthday is the prize for "first one to five souls wins," can she be the fifth soul? Can the prize also be the last soul taken? But wait! What if someone else comes along and volunteers to become the fifth soul - can he be trusted to be yours or might he be the Devil's, costing you everything? Over the centuries - you're immortal ("He tricked me. He let me win") - you've been such a loser in these bargains with Beelzebub.

A van drawn by four horses pulls up on a contemporary London street to set up a temporary stage, 19th-century style. Costumed as Mercury, young Anton (Andrew Garfield) beckons to a small crowd, offering to transport them into the world of imagination, unfortunately attracting Martin, a belligerent drunk, who climbs up to pursue pretty Valentina (Lily Cole) backstage and through the fake mirror into a strange landscape where he's eventually consumed in a burst of flames. (Another soul lost.)

A fourth member of the doctor's troupe, the dwarf Percy (Verne Troyer) repeats the line: "Perhaps you'll find a midget, if you're lucky." A child enters the interior through the mirror but comes back unharmed. "Don't worry if you don't understand it all immediately," Dr Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) says to a policeman.

Supplying familiar, fanciful Victorian-inspired settings (for those who've seen his cinemas), director/producer Terry Gilliam, who co-wrote the script of this fantasy film with Charles McKeown as well as the lyrics and music to some of the songs, might just as well be offering the same advice to his audience, for this could very well be "the story that sustains the universe."

Anton and Valentina rescue a man, who at first appears to be dead, hanging by the neck from beneath a bridge. On his forehead are symbols; he coughs up a metal tube (a musical pipe) and has amnesia. "He's been sent to us for a reason," avers Dr Parnassus, having turned up the hanged-man from his Tarot deck: "Cards don't lie." Eventually he recovers his memory: Tony Shepherd (Heath Ledger, who died during filming, replaced by three other actors to finish the role), head of a children's charity.

Dr P continues telling Valentina the story of how he regaining his youth and mortality to win a woman, her mother: "But at what price?" When Mr Nick (Tom Waits) offers another wager, the doctor gambles on Tony's being able to win over five souls first.

Tony recommends changes to the show, updating the costuming and attraction, luring patrons into being reborn and purified by asking: "Can you put a price on your dreams?" "One imagination at a time," Tony (Johnny Depp) takes four women behind the mirror for each to experience her personal wonderland of being dead but immortal, "forever young," thus becoming gods. When the first woman exits exhilarated, the next cries: "Take me!"

Shortly afterward four Russians find Tony (Jude Law), who'd unwisely taken out a loan from them for the charity, and chase him inside the mirror. Captured after his attempt to escape on stilts when a ladder split, one of the Russians threatens Tony: "I will make you die again. This time forever." The Devil's entertainment of dancing "fuzz" detours the loan sharks into this snare, evening the score at four apiece.

When Anton discovers a journalism account about Tony (Colin Farrell), the latter answers: "Don't believe what you read in the newspapers. Especially The Mirror."

Inside Dr Parnassus's mind, where winning is losing, the universe fractures fantastically with the revelation of Tony's true identity - a children's chorus sings: "We are the children of the world/ And we have suffered for your sins/ But if you open up your heart/ A new day begins" - as well, having gained the truth of her birth and her father's debt, Valentina performs a tango with the Devil, who tries to steer her through a different door than the one she chooses. There are miracles and there are mistakes, and one must always make a choice involving some uncertainty.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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