Well, I picked an easy one here. How to talk about this in a way that makes sense but doesn't involve just listing the plot...

Um.

The film is set at the traveling show which bears the name of the film. It centres on getting people to pay to step through a mirror which will take them to the world of their dreams. This turns out to be exactly what it does, sending people into a world generated by their own imagination. As you may expect, this is not always a place filled with sunshine and fun.

Christopher Plummer plays Dr. Pernassus, a wizened figure, who is assisted in his show by Anton (Andrew Garfield), Percy (Verne Troyer) and his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). The Doctor soon runs into an associate of his, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) and they also take on a new hand, Tony (Heath Ledger)

The film is stylistically exactly what you would expect from Gilliam, with slightly quirky real world scenes (given the carnival nature of the show) and impressively realised dreamscapes within the imaginarium. There is a vein of humour running throughout.

Whether you'll like this or not depends to some extent on how much you like Gilliam's films. I do, and I enjoyed this, but I did find the pacing to be verging on too slow at times and there is a fair deal going on at the same time.

My rating, as always, reflects what I thought and so should be tempered if this is not really your cup of tea.

Hmmm what to say about this film. It is by Terry Gilliam, just that in and of itself sets the scene. It also has singer Tom Waits.

It's a surreal story that centres around the titular Doctor Parnassus (who is played by Christopher Plummer making this the third film with him in we've seen today) who is something of a mystic or perhaps a mad man.

He travels in a bizarre caravan that opens out into a stage which at its centre has a mirror which it turns out is a portal to the imaginarium. Exactly what purpose this serves and why this is happening takes a while to be explained and if I were to explain it now it would undoubtedly spoil the film.

This is a film that unfurls its story slowly adding to the narrative with flashbacks and current events. It gradually fills in the blanks if you will painting the picture of who the characters are and what really is happening.

It's somewhat of a slow burning film taking some time to show it's hand which is both a good and a bad thing. It's a strange tale and set in a bleak setting the acting saves it from going too far off the deep end putting enough personality into the roles to keep things interesting.

I suspect this wont be for every one but it has a strong cast and an interesting story. Worth a look see if you've liked some of Gilliam's previous works.