‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ (PG-13)
!! 1/2
On the shambling traveling carnival ride dubbed “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” the price of a ticket earns you passage through a mirror where a magical world crafted by your own imagination lies on the other side. Back in reality, immortal Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) fears for himself and his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), whose colleague (Andrew Garfield) worries mysterious stranger Tony (Heath Ledger) will steal Valentina’s heart.
The buzz: Ledger’s death during shooting doesn’t appear to have affected the story a great deal, as the film’s batty logic makes the assists by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell (as other versions of Tony) work well enough. At the very least “Parnassus” should be a more engaging parade of technical wizardry than “The Lovely Bones” or “Avatar.”
The verdict: If “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland” took LSD and tried to write a movie it would probably turn out like “Doctor Parnassus,” a dizzy spell of visual fantasy and rickety plotting. Director Terry Gilliam can’t help but get tangled in all the threads of unrequited love and individual imaginations and deals with the devil, none of which add up to a whole lot. Of course, I’d rather get lost in a filmmaker’s warped mind than spend a second in the head of a director with nothing up there.
“Leap Year” PG
! 1/2
So desperate is Anna (Amy Adams) to get engaged to her boyfriend of four years (Adam Scott) that she follows him on a work trip to Dublin, where she intends to perpetuate an age-old tradition about women being allowed to propose to their men on Feb. 29. Believe it or not, her haphazard trip connects her with a charming lad (Matthew Goode) whose salty demeanor and good heart may prove that he’s the real Mr. Right.
The verdict: Will the romantic comedy formula ever get with the times? Adams’ sweetness just can’t sink to the level of stupidity called for in the script by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also knocked women back a few decades in “Made of Honor.” The performers, all pleasant in theory, just seem to be doing impressions of dumb movie characters.
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ALSO OUT
“Daybreakers”
R
Who’s in it: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Michael Dorman and Sam Neill
What it’s about: The year is 2019, and the world population is 90 percent vampire, who hunt the few human survivors for their “Matrix”-y industrial blood farms. A sympathetic vampire hematologist (Hawke) runs across some human rebels, which leads to increasing scenes of outlandishness.
Worth watching?
“The average human body holds approximately 1.5 gallons of blood. Unless you’re someone in the film “Daybreakers.” Then you’re carrying closer to 47 gallons, 46 of which will end up splattered on a wall … “Daybreakers” gets a C+ for effort, but an A- for over-the-top carnage.”
PETER HARTLAUB, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
