How exactly does one review a Terry Gilliam film? His visual sense is one of the best around; his story sense barely exists. This is his baby, and he has brought into the world a strange film which seems to exist to be strange. The conflict involves an alternate world through a mirror that features the battle for people's souls.
The visions of the alternate world are pure Gilliam. Dr. Parnassus stays in a trance to battle the devil by trying to appeal to people's better natures while of course the devil offers the easy way out. These sequences are what is good about the film. Full of surprises and visually striking and entertaining.
But more time is spent out of the mirror in London, and those sequences are not as well done. The film takes too much time to get going, and the characters seem to be designed to be hard to know. So the film doesn't engage the emotions as much as I would like, or I believe as much as was intended.
The visuals, especially in the alternative world, are enough to recommend the film. But with reservations. Grade: B-
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