Terry Gilliam , of “Brazil” and “Twelve Monkeys” fame,   delivers a trippy fantasia in his best in years but what makes this film unforgettable is Heath Ledger, who died before the movie wrapped. Amazingly, Gilliam made no changes in the movie. Since Ledger’s unfilmed scenes were in dream sequences with tons o special effects, it made sense to use three difference actors in his role: Jude Law, Colin  Farrell and the always amazing Johnny Depp, who managed to put his own stamp on a very tiny role with little screen time. What a talent!! 

I swear your mouth will fall open  and you will gasp at all the parallels to Ledger’s death – from his entrance as a seemingly dead man, hanging from a bridge to a scene where Johnny Depp talks about the forever young with a stream  full of floating images of icons who died before their time: James Dean; Princess Di and Rudolf Valentino.   And there’s more.  It’s worth seeing a second time- just for that.

3 stars