TERRY GILLIAM’S latest fantasy sombrely proclaims “a film From Heath Ledger and Friends.”

There is no escaping the uncomfortable truth that audiences will flock to The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus to witness the final performance of Oscar-nominated actor Ledger before his accidental drug overdose.

Gilliam’s picture was part-way through principal photography when the world lost one of its brightest talents.

The director, whose films have been bedevilled by bad luck throughout the years, took the decision to rework the script, casting three actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell) as stand-ins for the absent star in three dreamlike sequences.

The result is a film that is every bit as disjointed and befuddling as it is visually arresting and fanciful.

This is a disappointing final tribute to Ledger, and far from one of his best performances. He looks uncomfortable in his own skin and consequently we feel equally unsettled.

Hopefully, audiences will remember him as tortured cowboy Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain or the mentally unhinged Joker in The Dark Knight, which won him a posthumous Oscar as Best Supporting Actor earlier this year.

Immortal soothsayer Doctor Parnassus (Plummer) bargained with The Devil (Waits) many centuries ago, and now Old Nick has come to collect the soul of his teenage daughter Valentina (Cole), who works on a travelling circus fronted by Parnassus and his assistants Anton (Garfield) and Percy (Troyer).