Director Terry Gilliam's fantasy touch deserts him in this confusing plod through themes and visuals recycled from Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King. Gilliam's self-indulgent morality tale centres on a carnival sideshow run by Christopher Plummer, whose wagers with devilish Tom Waits could seal an unwelcome fate for his teenage daughter Lily Cole. In his last (but not greatest) screen performance, Heath Ledger plays the man Plummer co-opts to help him win his latest bet. Because Ledger died during the production, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell take over from him every time his character steps through the Imaginarium's enchanted mirror. While a clever way of covering up Ledger's demise, these fantasy sequences are clunky with poor special effects. Wilfully eccentric and totally out of synch with contemporary mores, it's a rambling and overbearing phantasmagoria.

A travelling theatre company has more to it than meets the eye. It is an imaginary world commanded by the mind of Doctor Parnassus and the audience is in for more than just a show.