Review by georgeareed

Terry Gilliam has created a memorable if uneven canon of films based largely on the meta-theme of imagination. That is to say, he has made a career of telling stories about telling stories. Most fan favorite lists would include Brazil, Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, 12 Monkeys, the indefinitely shelved The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Brothers Grimm and most recently, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas. There are a few common threads running through all these films including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas and its typological predecessor, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.

In choosing his source material, Gilliam favors those stories that cut a rather wide swath through time and space. Witness the exploits of the good Baron, conquering everything from the Ottomans to the king of the moon. Time Bandits do just that--pilfer throughout history. Brazil traverses...I don't actually know.

Gilliam uses his camera to capture dystopian worlds, worlds that typically bear a passing resemblance to ours, but with the bleakness turned to eleven. The darkness is usually leavened by a cartoonish level of abstraction especially evident in the costumes and set pieces (here the erstwhile illustrator of the Pythons is in evidence. The aesthetics and the promise (or premise) of a good story draw us in.

But, as is often the case with a Terry Gilliam meditation, the whole thing feels overwrought and under developed. Munchausen is a collection of great movie quotes, set pieces, and performances. But it is an overlong slog through the grim landscape of an aging man's narcissism and manias.

One I still revisit every few years though.