Heath Ledger: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

And 5 That Sucked...

5. Tony - The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Heath Ledger died halfway through the shooting of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, leaving Terry Gilliam in a very tricky situation; how could he finish the movie so that it works logically, but is also reverential to the great actor? The solution was actually rather simple thanks to the typically Gilliam-esque plot. Taking place half in the €˜real€™ world and half in the titular Imaginarium, Ledger had shot most of the scenes for the former, so it was decided new actors would play Tony in the other world, highlighting the character's duplicitous nature. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped up and the film ending up just about working narratively. However, while the character of Tony managed to work on screen, Ledger€™s performance didn€™t. With no scenes of him in the zany Imaginarium, what he delivered to the role isn€™t much; all set-up and no pay-off. It€™s a real shame his last role wasn't as awesome as it should have been.
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Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.