Tideland

Rating R Formats DVD Genre drama Starring Jodelle Ferland, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher, Jennifer Tilly, Jeff Bridges Directed by Terry Gilliam Publisher Velocity / Thinkfilm External Links Official Tideland Website

From Terry Gilliam's introduction, I wasn't sure I would like Tideland. Terry appears on camera in shadowy black and white (ala Hitchcock) to preface the movie. He asks the viewers to watch through the eyes of the child. My reaction was that he was making a plea to the masses that wouldn't understand or appreciate this film anyway.

I got it, which isn't to say I liked it. But I appreciated it. It was well done. The actors were committed, the art direction was beautiful, even in it's ugliness, and the camera work was interesting with the sharp angles and floating effects.

The film begins inside of the main character Jeliza-Rose (9 year old Jodelle Ferland's) sick reality and makes you understand why she'd rather stay in her nightmare than the life her drug addicted parents (played by Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Tilly) provide.

When her psychotic asthmatic mother dies in bed, her father, in a heroin induced state, attempts to set her on fire like a Viking funeral. Jeliza convinces him not to and they skip town to his childhood haunted house on the prairie.

The first day in their new home, her father dies of a drug overdose leaving her completely alone. Jeliza escapes further into her imagination in a twisted Alice in Wonderand fantasy.

Initially she keeps company with 4 doll heads, who are really extensions of her splintered psyche, while her father rots downstairs. Jeliza goes exploring and meets the witchlike Dell (Janet McTeer) and her half-wit brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher). These characters (reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's casting) were completely over the top, but fit in perfectly to Jeliza-Rose's make believe. This is when things really start to spiral downwards.

Tideland has some trademark Gilliam elements- religion, crossdressing and perversity. It also stays true to the end and it's characters don't falter even when they are confronted with uncomfortable situations. The most disturbing scene being when you think Jeliza-Rose and 20 year old Dickens are going to take their fantastical love affair to the next level.

I enjoyed Gilliam's attention to detail as in the vandalized, disintegrating inerior of the homes contrasting the golden, beautiful vastness of the outdoors. Also, the correlation of the disco balls in her mother's room and the fireflies on the prairie and the oceans of tall grass that remind Jeliza of the boglands of Jutland that her father would tell her about. These were things that Jeliza subconsciously clung to for comfort and nostalgia of her parents who must have had one redeeming quality between the two of them.

Jodelle Ferland's acting as Jeliza-Rose was superb. Most adults can't carry a film by themselves, much less do so while interacting with drug addicts, insane people, doll heads and talking squirrels. She pulls you in and you worry for her. You hope that someone (anyone) can save her, even when you don't think that she could survive in the real world.

Despite all this praise, I couldn't enjoy the movie. It made me uncomfortable and creeped me out. But unlike so many mainstream movies, it made me feel something, and I give Gilliam credit for that.