The Imaginarium attempts to provide a modern tale of a classic scenario. A man makes a deal with the devil and wins; but it turns out that winning is not at all as glorious as it was suppose to be. In this case, the man is Dr. Parnassus. He won a bet granting him immortal life. After a few centuries he grew tired of immortality. His eyes caught a view of woman and love at first sight was the result. In a second deal with the Devil he was granted youth and mortality so that he could marry this woman of his dreams. However the price was that any child of his would belong to the Devil at the age of 16. With his daughter's sweet-16 just days away, he fears for her fate. As luck would have it, the Devil can't resist a bet, and so another deal is made.

When Parnassus was granted back his mortality, he was also granted additional powers. It was never really explained why he was granted these powers. It's like the Devil had a buy one get one free offer, and figured "Hey, while I'm making you young and mortal, why not through in the ability to read people's minds and create worlds based on their imagination when they walk through this mirror, in which you can create a doorway for their soul to be sent to heaven if they so choose, but they'll still come out alive." Or something like that. Again, that part was never really explained. At any rate this is exactly what Parnassus can do. The 3rd deal was that if he can get 5 people to give their souls to heaven before the Devil (who can also take part in these worlds of the mind) can lure them to give their souls to Hell, then Parnassus gets to keep his daughter.

It's not an easy story to sum up and capture the key elements. There is a strong cast to support it, and the performances from Christopher Plummer and Heath Ledger were well done, as well as the shorter appearances from Johnny Depp and Jude Law. Unfortunately it didn't help the pacing which seems too slow at times, and the feeling that the special effects of the imaginary worlds were being used as too big of a crutch to carry the rest of the story. There's also a sub plot for Ledger's character, and what he's involved in and although it served a purpose it also felt weak. His clearly adult character also becomes entwined in a love story with the daughter, which felt out of place for the movie, considering the age difference between them. The ending was also a little confusing for me, leaving big holes in what was supposed to have happened in the lives of 2 of the characters.

It was okay, but I'm not sitting in anticipation for the next viewing. I think a trimming of the plot lines to allow the pace to pick up would have been beneficial.