Tideland
Release Date: February 27, 2007 Tag Line: The squirrels made it seem less lonely. Description: After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in a house her father had purchased for his now-deceased mother, Jeliza-Rose's attempts to deal with what's happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper's veil. Running time: 121 minutes Rating: R (for bizarre and disturbing content, including drug use, sexuality, and gruesome situations, and for some language) Scoop ReviewPlot: Jeliza-Rose is reared in a world where her washed-out musician father, Noah (Jeff Bridges), and crazed, psychotic mother, Queen Gunhilda (Jennifer Tilly), make the young girl prepare their nightly heroin dose. Noah is always coming up with some new idea, and now it’s to go to Jutland, where the Norsemen and Vikings once roamed. Queen Gunhilda convulses to death from an overdose, and Daddy Noah sees fit to wrap her in a sheet with her favorite belongings and set her on fire, like the Vikings would do, only to be brought to his senses by Jeliza-Rose. He then whisks her off to his now-dead mother’s house in the middle of God’s country and eventually dies sitting in his mother’s rocking chair, leaving this young girl alone with her imagination, no food, and neighbors who would make Marilyn Manson cringe. Acting: Holy crow. This little girl (Jodelle Ferland) is good. I forgot many times that she was acting here. Jeff Bridges is always great. The others played their roles as edge-of-insanity characters brilliantly. Jennifer Tilley’s character has a short screen presence, and however horrifying, she made her junkie-rat mother jarringly three-dimensional. Special Effects: Visually, this movie is fantastic, as are all Terry Gilliam films. Keep an Eye Out For. . .
The Straight Scoop: Let me break this down—young girl prepares heroin nightly for her parents, she doesn’t seem to go to school but is very intelligent, she ends up stranded in this abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, the taxidermy neighbors over the hill are completely insane and a potential threat at every uncomfortable moment of their screen presence, the girl has not one but four torso-less dolls (just the heads that she puts on her fingers and for whom she has different voices), and Terry Gilliam is driving this train. I don’t want to give anything away, because those who do choose to see this will be carrying it around with them for a while. This film will echo in your soul in a horribly pleasant, visually arresting, and funny way. Mr. Gilliam, you continually re-invent the wheel of story telling. It would take approximately a 10-page report to discuss the thematic and literary elements of this film. Recommendation: This movie is not for those with a weak palate. Its subject matter is intense, horrifying, and funny all at the same time. If you think you’re going to take this film home to your girlfriend or wife, when she is normally the person who would prefer a Hugh Grant or a Meg Ryan pile . . . you will be in the dog house! However, if you’re of an artistic nature and literary mind and do not mind being terrified by what this young, innocent girl might do next because of her hideous upbringing, then you’re in business. The introduction by Terry Gilliam at the beginning of the film was definitely necessary and helpful. There are some hilarious scenes here, as well as some scenes that are so horrid that heaven forbid they ever happen. Quality Rating: Five scoops Riff Rating: Three scoops Reviewer: Drea Codispoti
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