don't shoot the messenger.

I forgot to post about this last week, and I just remembered! Strange coincidence (I'll explain below). On Easter Sunday I was bored watching The Dark Knight on HBO. Seriously, Heath Ledger's performance is haunting! Then I remember I never got a chance to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which was officially his last film--although he never got to complete it. Instead, three of his friends (JOHNNY DEPP, Jude Law, and Collin Farrell) completed his part... and with the fantasy element, it made sense for them to continue to play the same character in different realms. It was released in December; I had been waiting foreverrr to see it, but it wasn't released locally. Well, after watching TDK I looked it up and found a link online.

I have to admit, I was more impressed than I thought I would be. I had always been a fan of Heath's (back from 10 Things I Hate About You to Brokeback Mountain), and again, he does not disappoint. He was actually in a lot more of the film than I expected. The fill-in actors were all amazing, but they each had really only one scene (Collin's was slightly longer). It was funny, entertaining, witty--not at all what I was expecting from the trailer. It is just the type of movie you would expect Johnny Depp to do, but Heath did an amazing job. He was evolving into that type of actor... taking the risky roles for the sake of the art. Overall Rating: A.

Now, I said something about a coincidence, didn't I? After watching it, I went to iMDB to read more about it (something I always do because I'm a movie nerd, and I'm not ashamed! lol), and what do I see on the homepage? It was Heath Ledger's birthday! (April 4th). I had no idea, but I thought that it was the oddest, quirkiest little coincidence that I watched his two final films that day. I'm pretty sure you've seen The Dark Knight by now (and if you haven't, what is wrong with you?!), but you should definitely check out Dr. Parnassus. It should be out on DVD soon!

Some fun little trivia I found out from the iMDB page: All three of the actors that finished the role gave all their earnings to Heath's daughter, Matilda (how awesome is that?); also, JDepp ad-libbed a line in the film that ironically was also ad-libbed by Heath without even knowing it ("Don't shoot the messenger").