TidelandHello. I am here to tell you about an excellent movie I saw recently called "Tideland." Please note, this movie is not for everybody, and it got a horribly negative review from most critics. However, I am going to write this note to hopefully convince anybody who might have been put-off to give it a look. I am a big Terry Gilliam fan, and I enjoyed every film he's ever done. At the moment, the only exception to that is Jabberwocky, but it was high school since I've seen that movie and my tastes have changed considerably. Furthermore, I also consider movies such as David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch and David Lynch's Eraserhead to be masterpieces. Yes, I'm lumping Tideland into that type of sick/horror genre. If you hated those films previously mentioned, then you are probably going to be among the mass of critics and audiences who will hate Tideland. But, if you have a knack to enjoy demented works of genius, then Tideland is a great movie for you. (Tideland isn't a horror movie though ... it's almost a pure fantasy but with some frightening moments.) Gilliam worked on Tideland after he was done filming his other recent ill-received The Brothers Grimm, but before he was finished on the post-production of it. Tideland was an extremely low-budgeted movie (unlike most of his movies which infamously require monumental budgets) thanks to the limited scope of the subject matter and the relatively cheaper ways to create believable special effects nowadays. In that respect, Gilliam wasn't wrestling with any studio-head over what to put in this film. This is why Tideland is the most pure-Gilliam movie ever made! (Doesn't that excite the pants off of anyone else?) Well, let's talk about the actual movie. It's about a young girl (Jodelle Ferland) whose drug addict mother (Jennifer Tilly) finally overdoses and dies. Her husband (Jeff Bridges) and the daughter do not react to this situation in any remotely normal logic. Bridges covers up the corpse in a blanket and tries to set the bed on fire, but the girl (completely unphased at her mother's death) blows out the flame citing that it would set the whole building on fire. Bridges inevitably agrees. As you might guess, the filming is shocking and ugly. The characters are not rational. But, it's a scene that attacks my attention; this is clearly not going to be a normal movie. I'm intensely interested in what's going to happen next. Likewise, this is the first scene that will put off the 80 percent of critics and audience who hated this film. Bridges and his daughter go on a bus ride to his old childhood home, which sits in the middle of a beautifully golden wheat field. That was quite a surreal setting for this movie ... The ugly house sits in the middle of a sea of beauty. It isn't long before Bridges follows where his wife has gone; he overdoses and dies, but the daughter seems to be completely oblivious of this! Instead, she spends the entire time talking to her doll heads (that she keeps on her fingertips) and going on sort of adventures. She even puts a wig and make-up on her deceased father and talks to him as if he were still alive. She runs across an incredibly creepy woman (Janet McTeer) wearing a black beekeeper's suit whose right eye was blinded after getting stung by a bee. She is an embalmer and has a deranged habit of preserving her dead relatives (in a similar way that people would stuff a bear) and claiming that the dead could still spring to life. (!!!!) She ends up doing the same thing to Bridges who turns into this sort of an odd leathery cocoon. The girl befriends this woman's brother (Brendan Fletcher) who is a mentally challenged and generally good natured. This is a monumentally creepy movie that is quite obviously too much for most audiences to take. However, the creepiness was absolutely essential for the film! If it wasn't crazy and creepy, then it wouldn't be as effective -- Gilliam makes a good decision to even come on camera before the movie begins and warn everybody that the movie is not for all audiences. This movie requires a lot of stomach. (If you want an example of what I'm able to stomach, I watched Cronenberg's 1986 masterpiece The Fly without a flinch. This movie isn't so gross-out, but it can be deeply disturbing.) This is an ugly movie, but the right viewer will also uncover its underlying beauty that is so great that it's breathtaking. Despite all the horrors that are going on, the girl's imagination keeps her from being completely terrified. The situations she has to endure are too horrible for most people to take, but her imagination manages to triumph and she continues to live life the way it should be. (Though she's bound to go to therapy somewhere down the road!!!!) Those who are able to use imagination instead of dwelling on the horrors that surrounds them are able to advance through life instead of stagnating. Gilliam's movie doesn't go this far (and I think it might have) but people who know how to use their imaginations in horrible settings might even be able to change their surroundings for the better. When you think about it, aren't people who are too in-tuned to their imagination are the ones who turn into the greatest leaders of art, science and politics? That said, the movie also delves into the topic that overactive imaginations can also be dangerous. Brendan Fletcher's character spends part of the film trying to take down a 'great monster shark,' which is actually a passenger's train. My only criticism of the movie is some of the humor/slapstick scenes. The fart-joke scenes on the bus didn't come off too comical and pretty juvenile. Alternately, a few of the film's examples of off-kilter humor work very well and are apt to produce a few laughs! (Remember, Gilliam was a Monty Python member, after all.) Gilliam never did a humor-less movie, and this is certainly no exception. The over-the-top performances from the cast provide much of this (regardless of the script), and Gilliam knows where to position a camera to produce some visual gags. He shares that ability with Men in Black director Barry Levinson. Talking about the acting now, I thought it was generally quite good. Jodelle Ferland is no Jodie Foster, but she does carry the entire film on her shoulders well especially for a child actor. She's a charming lead performer and delivers a usually convincing performance as the imaginative girl. Interesting that the two big stars of the film are hardly in it. Jennifer Tilly is only in the first few minutes (but she's pretty electrifying) and Jeff Bridges spends the most of the movie as a corpse (hey, but he did a good job with that tongue sticking out that eventually turns purple). The real 'Oscar' should go to the crazy beekeeper Janet McTeer whose whacked but stunning performance puts her easily at home in a Terry Gilliam movie!! Needless to say, this movie is not for kids. Although, I'm sure some of the older ones might think it's good. I'm actually more disturbed by a lot of the blood 'n' gore, R-rated horror movies out there, which most older kids don't seem to mind. Overall, I give this film an enthusiastic thumbs up, and say that this is a solid Gilliam effort. It doesn't measure up to the glorious Brazil (my favorite movie ever made, incidentally), but it definitely earns its place in Gilliam's library. I'd go so far as to say that this is Gilliam's Tales of Topographic Oceans (a rock album by Yes). Nobody but hardcore fans will like it. Date reviewed: March 31, 2007 FINAL SCORE: B+
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