The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

A Good Homage - 3.5/5

So I saw this film yesterday called 'The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus'. With this film I found I couldn't help but focus my entire attention to the great Heath Ledger's performance, due to it being his final ever film. With this in mind, I found the film got off to a slow and slightly confusing start. To me, it was only when Ledger's character Tony was revealed to us that the film began to take off. Ledger's performance was definitely a truly memorable one. It shows how far he progressed from the days of '10 Things I Hate About You'. He performs in a very modest way in this film and his little facial expressions were absolutely captivating. The only one out the the three other stars in the film (Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell) was Farrell, who incidentally would be my favourite actor out of the three. He was the only one to really capture anywhere near the magic that Ledger brought to the film. In saying this however, his small role was dwarfed by Ledger.

In terms of storyline I must admit that I get a bit lost at times. I couldn't follow Terry Gilliam's train of thought as well as I had hoped. The film brought back images of 'Pan's Labyrinth', a film that is, at times, equally confusing. I don't think Gilliam took enough time to fully explain the story to the audience. Of course this has to be put down to the extremely unfortunate death of its main man part way through filming. The film was a great homage to Heath Ledger's legacy despite its flaws.

Another stand out role for me was Andrew Garfield as Tommy. I saw 'The Social Network' before I saw this film and I just didn't realise he had this sort of performance in him. He was truly stunning. His cockney accent and cheeky personality was convincing and whereas I found him a tad one-dimensional in 'The Social Network', here he showed us his full range of talents.

This is certainly one to watch mainly due to it being Heath Ledger's final role. He will be sorely missed and he was a treasure to the film industry.

Repo Men (2010)

Law's Finest Hour - 4.5/5

So I saw this film today called 'Repo Men'. I'm not a big fan on Jude Law; films such as 'Sherlock Holmes', 'The Holiday' and 'Enemy at the Gates' have totally passed me by without making much of an impression. You'll see why I would say that this was Jude Law's finest performance to date. Had I been the director his name would not have even passed my mind. He just doesn't seem suitable for an extremely gory action thriller with some stunning fight scenes. Forest Whitaker maybe, but not Law. However, he managed to blow me away! He was hardcore.

This film totally captured me from the very beginning. With a futuristic film about a subject that needs some explaining to the audience of today, it is important to reveal the main storyline quickly. Within minutes we understood the plot and were ready to see where it would take us. It managed to take us on a thrilling journey of bloodbaths, 300-esque fight scenes and even romance. This film packed everything in. It could win an award based solely on its superb soundtrack which, like the casting of Jude Law, is surprisingly effective. Not to mention the MEGA twist right at the end. That was a stroke of genius.

Ok, so some parts of the plot didn't make too much sense. Why, as an employee of The Union, would Law have to pay for his heart after being shocked by a faulty piece of Union equipment? And how do they legally repossess the organs? These thoughts remained with me for only a few minutes. Then I was sucked in by another amazing murder. It would have been easy for this film to run away with futuristic idiocy, but it managed to stay true to the storyline surrounding Law's family. It needed this element to keep it believable.

Would I recommend it? Make it the next film you watch.