Colossal fligh ht of fancy; Terry Gilliam should be congratulated for com mpleting a successful morality tale: TheBigMovie THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (I2A) Verdict: HHHII.

Byline: GRAHAM YOUNG

FORTY years after Monty Python's Flying Circus, there's a different kind of crazy show in town - right in the shadow of London's Tower Bridge.

But are you ready to step into a bizarre, Faustian world far beyond the reality of our own? That director Terry Gilliam should be making a morality tale as ambitious as this four decades after Python, is one thing.

He should also be congratulated for reaching the finishing line.

Ten years ago, his film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was ditched shortly after shooting began thanks to illness (to star Jean Rochefort) and flooding.

Then, a third of the way through the Parnassus shoot, the tragic death of his latest leading man Heath Ledger threatened another wholesale cancellation, as well as bringing a whole new meaning to lines like "Will we miss him? I don't think so", "For the love of God... he's dead" and "Nothing is permanent, not even death".

Co-written with Charles McKeown (Gilliam's fellow Oscar-nominated cowriter of Brazil), The Imaginarium is the story of a theatrical troupe on wheels.

The action is set in the present day where Doctor Parnassus is a god-like creature who won immortality thanks to a deal with The Devil, Mr Nick (Tom Waits).

Centuries later, he made another deal - trading his immortality for youth on condition that when his daughter Valentina reached the age of 16, she would become the property of Mr Nick.

Naturally, the doc has changed his mind and so begins a race against time whereby any man who can save Valentina would be promised her hand in marriage.

With sidekicks including trickster Anton (Andrew Garfield) and the vertically-challenged Percy (Verne Troyer on top form), Parnassus can give people the chance to choose between "light and joy or darkness and gloom".

But, when Valentina (played by Torquay-born Lily Cole from St Trinian's) is taken, will Heath Ledger's Tony be the one to enter the parallel worlds to save her? Though overlong at 123 minutes, as a flight of director-controlled fancy, Parnassus is another colossal, almost hallucinatory piece of imagination. Luckily for unlucky Gilliam - who began his career as a cartoonist and animator with a distinctive style - Ledger had already filmed all of his scenes on our side of the mirror (including what amounts to a bizarre, posthumous plug for the DIY store, Homebase).

This enables Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to put on a white suit ready to step into the Australian's shoes as a believably similar but different, other-world version of Tony.

The most remarkable performance of all comes from Sound of Music veteran Christopher Plummer.

He will be 80 on December 13, but has also recently voiced the lead character in Up brilliantly and will soon be seen playing Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station. He has never had so much as an Oscar nomination, but his 55-year career surely deserves special recognition.

GRAHAM YOUNG

CAPTION(S):

Immortal: Heath Ledger had completed all 'real world' scenes as Tony in The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus.