Tideland

I finally got to see Terry Gilliam's Tideland, courtesy of Netflix. What a very strange little movie--and I say that being a huge fan of Gilliam's body of work. In many ways, it's his most mainstream movie ever, since there's nothing supernatural in it at all beyond a little girl's imagination. When Jeliza Rose's imagination (and also her dreams) take center stage, there is an abundance of surreal, beautiful and sometimes troubling imagery. In that way Tideland is most similar to Gilliam's The Fisher King, only with a Jeliza Rose's sanity-saving innocence and escapism replacing Parry's mental imbalance from the earlier film.

Tideland is in many ways a return to form for Gilliam after the misstep the potentially brilliant Brothers Grimm turned out to be (oh, how good the film could've been had Gilliam rewritten that sloppy, uninspired script). Here he tackles complex, uncomfortable issues. The macabre takes center stage, framed in absurdity. The most mundane things--a upturned school bus, a disembodied Barbie head--become otherworldly under his direction. The performances here are fantastic. Jodelle Ferland is amazing as Jeliza Rose, surpassing even Sara Polley's stellar turn as Sally Salt in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Brendan Fletcher gives perhaps his best performance ever as the lobotomized, childlike Dickens, a character that brings to mind Brad Pitt's best-ever acting performance as Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys. Seriously, there's some great acting going on here.

Unfortunately, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize why the film never found an audience. Despite Gilliam's introduction begging the viewer to watch the film as if through the innocent eyes of a child, it's impossible to watch this movie without becoming very uncomfortable with the undercurrent of child sex abuse. I'm willing to forgive a lot, especially since I understood Gilliam's intentions with the first scene, and the revelations regarding Dickens' childhood. But then Gilliam revisits it again. And again. There's such a thing a diminishing returns, and Gilliam runs up against it here, especially since the various scenes could easily have been combined into one for the same emotional and story impact. As it is, my brother walked out and I nervously eyed the fast forward button.

The ending, too, just sort of stumbles across the finish line. There's a tragic stab at poignancy and the implication that Jeliza Rose has finally escaped the inadvertent hell her life and become, with better days ahead. But it doesn't have any resonance, and very little closure. The pieces are all there, but they never quite come together, as if Gilliam himself were unsure how to wrap up this twisted little movie.

Tideland isn't his best film, but it contains some of his best work. Too bad most viewers are going to bounce off it so hard.

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