Beautiful film of the alternate reality of a child living with difficult parents and filling up her life the only way she knows how after they 'abandon' her in a crooked old house in the middle of nowhere. Jodelle is FANTASTIC in this, damn. She plays the little girl plus three distinct characters with different voices (her doll heads). Effing brilliant that kid. I love Gilliam's personification of childhood innocence . Controversial to some because he gives it pure (as is what Gilliam ever does), and a little disconcerting if you forget that you're looking through the eyes of a child who's used to the bitter side of life, but otherwise a brilliant, artistic attempt of an otherwise crocked world. You either love it or hate it -- this isn't for the mainstream. Appreciators of Reflecting Skin and Pan's Labyrinth should not miss this movie, it's a nice cross of both. :)
A perfectly disturbing portrait of childhood. The bleak, desolate, and harsh reality presented to us is shown in such a vibrant and energetic way that you manage to forget just how alone you really are.
TERRY GILLIAM states during pre-show that you will either LOVE IT or HATE IT. I remain FASCINATED by it but have to recommend this one to FANS ONLY!
Diffrent and unique. Film is def not for everyone. Very weird. With weird characters the retarted man reminded me of The trash can man from the stand and Captain tripps. The witch lady was funny in all that black. Reminded me of a stephen king movie mixed with a weird twisted fairy tale. The girl we remember from the ring movies. Jennifer Tilly as a druggy is funny! If you like really weird twisted movies that seem to make no sense you will like this movie.
When watching this film, at the begginining Gilliam gives a disclaimer that you MIGHT not like this film...I would not say I did not like it but I did not LOVE it. The premise is strange it is like Pans Labrinth which was done later but not as magical. The film's tone has a bleakness but is rich. The film is from the POV of a little girl that quite frankly, her life sucks. But with her life sucking she does that know that she has fun and entertains herself, and still loves her dead (embalmed) father...yes embalmed.
The story sadly never gained momentum. Pans Labrinth was visually stunning and the reality was dark and sad but Tideland equally stunning in its landsccape but the isolation is felt in the film.
Jodelle Feraland ranks #2 (Ave is number one) in the most beautiful child actor I have ever seem. The child is luminous, she glows. If Gilliam achieved anything to perfection is the performance of this little star.
A dark & disturbing, yet quaint & innocent movie which reflects the opposite extremes of the human experience and emotions. Brilliantly crafted characters and a quirky storyline result in addictive viewing.
It was almost pointless. From what I understood, it's a look at alternate realities some kids at a youg age suffer from and I guess wierdness was pretty much a prerequisite of the film but even then, it looked fake and pretentious. It felt like as if the film was just wierd for the sake of being wierd.
The whole film was hallucinatory and actually quite disturbing at times but I just didn't really like it. There were some things about it that I liked though, for instance some of the acting, the camera work, the overall idea, some of the references (Alice in Wonderland comes to mind) and the ending, but I guess that's about it.
I really don't know how to rate this film. I kind of liked it but I was also kind of disturbed by it.
Tideland is not a film for the squeamish. The subject matters this film deals with are pretty dark and when portrayed through the eyes of a young girl, blissfully unaware of the hideousness of these things, they become even more unsettling to watch. Not because she is suffering but because she isn't and because she sees them as exciting and magical. This film makes you think about what the modern society deems as bad and wrong. Are they judged so because they really, innately, are bad things, or because somebody decided so dozens or hundreds of years ago and we've been taught to see them as bad ever since?
Gilliam himself says at the start of the movie..some of you are going to hate this, & some of you are going to love it. He should of probably added, that some of you are going to be weirded out by this strange, strange examination of the resilience ...(read more) of youth in the face of ghastly adversity. For a movie that covers mainline drug abuse, terrible child neglect, monologues to decomposing corpses, & nightmarish fantasy worlds of talking dolls heads, it is surprising that it also manages to squeeze in a gentle love story between two people for whom fantasy is an escape from a much darker reality. Gilliam is about right, some will love this, although I suspect that most mainstream audiences will be reaching for the sick bag by the second reel. I liked this movie, I liked it so much that I never want to watch it again.
Gilliam captures childhood in one of its most fantastical elements. Through a bizzare and unsettling journey, the naivety of youth warrants gorgeous images that dazzle the senses. His direction abstains from letting the film plummet into a child's movie, but somewhere towards the end it falters into an erratic mess. As he warns, though, don't forget to laugh, for it pulls the film together.
Beautiful, bizarre, and heartbreaking. One of Terry Gilliams best films. Based on Mitch Cullin's novel "Tidealnd", this film goes overboard into disturbing territory that Pan's Labrynth always hinted at, but in a much more isolated setting, and with less reliance on magic realism. All the fantasy is definitely in the main characters head, and its the viewers knowledge of the intangibility of the fantasies that gives everything it's tragic and vital quality. Beyond "Psycho", "Alice In Wonderland", and "The Wizard Of Oz", exists a space for this film. One of Gilliam's most dramatic and moving works since The Fisher King. Its arguous and disturbing at times, but it's a one of a kind film. One of the best films of 05, and in the last decade in general, Terry Gilliam back at the top of his game.
This film is a very unusual but amazing film. Terry Gilliam does an introduction to the film which i really liked because he tells the audience to watch this film as if you were still that child deed inside. You need to watch it with an innocence and the things that we now find disgusting or unusual might not of seemed so strange or gross as a child.
Forse uno dei film che ho apprezzato di pił, non parla di tossicodipendenza, di violenza e di degrado sociale con la pretesa di farne una denuncia, ma racconta del come una bambina di nove anni riesca inconsapevolmente a reagire agli eventi che la circondano con la sola forza della fantasia, universo onirico che si costruisce
Alice in wonderland on acid. An interesting but ineffective example of Gilliam's poetic, magical, sad and disturbing universe. The young little Jodelle Ferland is quite precocious and convincing in her role.
It's films like this that keep Terry Gilliam from hitting the heights he deserves. Visually (as usual) it's a treat, and the girl gives an awesome performance. But it's so hard to love dealing as it does with taxidermy, terrorism and death. It's not a bad film and you can see Gilliam's intentions to do justice to the source material, but it could do with just a sprnkling of "happiness".
The visual imagery we all love from Gililam is here, and Jodelle Ferland proved to be an effective actress who dealt with the subject matters from the movie very well, but at the end, I found it hard to care about everything/anything that was going on.
A somewhat disturbing look into the life of a girl who's father's a junky and who's neighbours are an insane taxidermist and a mentally handycapped young man
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