Dir. Terry Gilliam, Canada/UK, 2005, 122 mins approx
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher,
Jennifer Tilly, Dylan Taylor, Wendy Anderson, Sally Crooks
Review by Martyn Bamber
Jeliza-Rose (Ferland) is a young girl who lives in her own fantasy world, while the real world around her is full of danger and uncertainty. After the death of her mother (Tilly), Jeliza-Rose and her father, Noah (Bridges), leave home and travel to a dilapidated house in the country. But when Noah suddenly dies, Jeliza-Rose is alone at the house and forced to fend for herself. Retreating into her imagination, she talks to four dolls heads that she keeps with her, and encounters a talking squirrel that pesters her. But soon Jeliza-Rose meets Dell (McTeer), an imposing witch-like woman, and Dickens (Fletcher), a mentally impaired young man who befriends her. With only her imagination and resilience to help her, Jeliza-Rose tries to carry on with her life and cope with her situation as best she can.
After The Brothers Grimm (2005) – which from all accounts was film with a protracted and difficult production history (and which was less a quirky Gilliam fantasy and more a conventional blockbuster) – Tideland is a more independent film. This is pure, unfiltered Terry Gilliam (its frenzied nature at times recalls Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998), with wide-angle lenses, exaggerated performances, resulting in a tone that doesn’t just shift, it jolts and lurches. Gilliam’s films are never conventional, organised narratives; they’re more like an assembly of random elements flung together with the resulting collisions and reactions ending up in the film. This isn’t to say that Gilliam’s films aren’t rigorously planned and executed: they clearly are. It’s just that he allows fate and the element of chance to enter into his plans in order to see what effect they will have on the film.
Jodelle Ferland gives one of the most extraordinary performances of recent times, mixing childhood naivety and openness with adult savvy, and she expertly conveys Jeliza-Rose’s vivid imagination, which helps the character cope with the numerous traumatic situations that she finds herself in. For a director who primarily is seen as a visual stylist, Gilliam’s evident respect for actors and his skill with them has resulted in lead performers turning in some of their best work for him (think of Jonathan Pryce in Brazil (1985) or Bruce Willis in Twelve Monkeys, 1995) and Ferland continues this tradition. The other actors may seem over-the-top, but arguably this is how Jeliza-Rose sees the adult world; in larger-than-life terms. The exception to this may be Jeff Bridges, who seems to have taken his iconic Dude persona from The Big Lebowski (1998) and channelled it into a more tragic, self-aware character.
There are similarities to Psycho (1960), but there are also elements that are reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), including the mysterious and imposing farmhouse, the skewed look at the American family and the use of taxidermy. This could classify classifies Tideland as a horror movie (refreshingly, one that doesn’t resort to using a gimmicky slasher flick plot to keep people’s interest), but the film is also something of a companion piece with Running Scared (2006), which also chronicles the odyssey of a child cast adrift in a dangerous adult world and left to survive alone. It’s refreshing to have a film that doesn’t sugar-coat the childhood experience and eliminate danger or disturbing moments that any child may face as they grow up. While this fact may alienate, divide and possibly even outrage certain people, others will find this aspect of Tideland more honest refreshing. Ultimately, this isn’t simply a straightforward story about a child growing up; this is a tough fantasy film manages to capture the experience of childhood.
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