Tideland (film)
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| Tideland | |
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 Tideland movie poster |
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| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
| Produced by | Gabriella Martinelli Jeremy Thomas |
| Written by | Tony Grisoni (screenplay) Terry Gilliam (screenplay) Mitch Cullin (novel) |
| Starring | Jodelle Ferland Jeff Bridges Brendan Fletcher Janet McTeer Jennifer Tilly |
| Music by | Jeff Danna Mychael Danna |
| Cinematography | Nicola Pecorini |
| Distributed by | Revolver Entertainment (UK) ThinkFilm (USA) Capri Films (Canada) HanWay Films (sales) |
| Release date(s) | 9 September 2005 (Toronto Film Festival) 9 February 2006 (Russia, limited) 11 August 2006 (UK, limited) 27 October 2006 (USA, limited) |
| Running time | 122 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Tideland (2005) is a film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, an adaptation of Mitch Cullin's novel Tideland. The movie was shot in Regina, Saskatchewan and surrounding area in the fall and winter of 2004. The world premier was at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film was met with mixed response from both viewers and critics. After little interest from U.S. distributors, ThinkFilm picked the film up for a U.S. release date in October 2006.
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[edit] Film plot
Tideland is a macabre, darkly surreal film about an abandoned child named Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland). The story centers on Jeliza-Rose's solitary adventures during one summer in rural Texas while staying at a rundown farmhouse called What Rocks, and focuses on the increasingly dark, imaginative fantasy life the girl creates with the aid of dismembered Barbie doll heads that she often wears on her fingertips. With names such as Mustique, Satin Lips and Glitter Gal, the doll heads not only engage in long conversations with Jeliza-Rose, reflecting different aspects of the girl's psyche, but also act as her companions while she explores the barren Texas landscape.
Before arriving in Texas, Jeliza-Rose's mother (Jennifer Tilly) dies from a drug overdose. Thereafter, her junkie, washed-out rocker musician father Noah (Jeff Bridges) flees with Jeliza-Rose to a remote Texas farmhouse where he soon follows his deceased wife by overdosing. For much of the rest of the film, Noah's corpse remains seated upright in a living room chair with sunglasses covering his eyes. As her father slowly begins to rot, Jeliza-Rose doesn't readily acknowledge his death because she has grown accustomed to him being unconscious for long periods at a time. Instead, she retreats deeper and deeper into her own mind, exploring the tall grass around the farmhouse, relying on her doll heads for friendship as an unconscious way of keeping herself from feeling too lonely and afraid.
During Jeliza-Rose's wanderings, she eventually encounters and befriends her neighbors, a mentally challenged young man called Dickens (Brendan Fletcher) and Dicken's older sister Dell (Janet McTeer) who is blind in one eye from a bee sting. At this point the story begins to unfold, revealing a past connection between Dell and Jeliza-Rose's deceased father. The eccentric neighbors take the girl under their wing, going so far as to preserve Noah's body via the taxidermy process (something both Dell and Dickens have done to their own dead mother). Events take on an even darker tone when Dickens's amorous feelings for the much younger Jeliza-Rose start to creep into their child-like relationship, and it is revealed that the deeply troubled Dickens, a boy-man who once drove a school bus in front of an oncoming train, keeps a stash of dynamite in his bedroom that he intends to use against the Monster Shark he believes is roaming the countryside. The Monster Shark being, in reality, the nightly passenger train that travels past the farmhouse where Jeliza-Rose and her dead father reside.
What follows is literally an explosive conclusion to the film, one which not only frees Jeliza-Rose from her painful isolation but jolts her from the coping-mechanisms of her own imagination, pulling her back into the less fanciful yet equally disturbing real world. Among the wreckage of the passenger train that has crashed near the farmhouse, Jeliza-Rose is rescued by a surviving passenger who assumes the little girl was also a victim of the train wreck.
[edit] Film festivals
Tideland was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at Spain's 2005 San Sebastian Festival, selected by an international jury of critics that, in their award statement, said: "Our jury focused on the international competition and found Terry Gilliam's Tideland to be the best film of the selection — a decision which provoked controversial reactions." The jury consisted of Andrei Plakhov, Russia, President (Kommersant), Julio Feo Zarandieta, France (Radio France Internationale), Wolfgang Martin Hamdorf, Germany (filmdienst), Massimo Causo, Italy (Corriere Del Giorno), Sergi Sanchez, Spain (La Razon).
[edit] Critical and public reaction
Reviews, at least among professional critics in English-speaking countries, have been largely negative. Rotten Tomatoes consensus gave it a 26% rating - but their "Cream of the Crop" gave it a 5% - calling it "disturbing and unwatchable". Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman, who has famously[citation needed] disliked most of Gilliam's cinematic output, called it "gruesomely awful". The film received "two thumbs way down" from Richard Roeper and guest critic A.O. Scott on Ebert & Roeper. Scott said that toward the end, the film was "creepy, exploitive, and self-indulgent", while Roeper said "I hated this film" and "I came very close to walking out of the screening room. And I never do that.".
Other critics have praised the film, including Chicago Tribune critic Michael Wilmington, who called the film "crazy, dangerous and sometimes gorgeous: a feast of nuttiness that takes you, for a while, over the edge." A number of online reviewers also gave the film positive reviews, including Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News who wrote, "TIDELAND, for me, is a masterpiece," and whose blurb was featured on the DVD release. Filmmaker David Cronenberg described the movie as a "poetic horror film," a quote which was used in the advertising campaign for the theatrical release[1].
Director Terry Gilliam in an interview said that the film has always garnered mixed reactions, some people love it, hate it, or really do not know what to think about the film, due to its content[citation needed].
The film opened with only $7,276 from one theater. The film subsequently expanded to only nine theatres[2]. A few independent cinemas have presented the film as a special event[citation needed], including IFC Center.
Gilliam has openly criticized Thinkfilm, the American distributor, for various ways that they mishandled the release[3].
[edit] Awards and recognition
The film was nominated in six categories for the 27th Genie Awards in 2007:
- Best actress: Jodelle Ferland
- Art direction/production design: Jasna Stefanovic
- Cinematography: Nicola Pecorini
- Costume design: Mario Davignon
- Editing: Lesley Walker
- Overall sound
[edit] DVD release
The DVD of Tideland was released on February 27, 2007. It is a 2 Disc Collector's Edition, with a commentary track, many interviews, deleted scenes (only with a forced commentary over the original audio), and a making-of documentary. Unfortunately, the Region 1 DVD released by ThinkFilm for the United States has the film in the wrong aspect ratio; it is in anamorphic full-frame (1.77:1) instead of the aspect ratio prepared and approved by Terry Gilliam and the director of photography (in theaters, it was shown in 2.35:1, but Gilliam wanted to open up the image slightly; somewhere between 2.10:1 and 2.25:1)[4]. It also appears to be pan-and-scan as opposed to open-matte. There were early reports that other regions, and Canada (region 1), had the correct aspect ratio, but these have proven false, although the region 2 UK disc is slightly closer to Gilliam's intended aspect ratio[5].
[edit] Movie cast overview
- Jodelle Ferland as Jeliza-Rose
- Brendan Fletcher as Dickens
- Jeff Bridges as Noah
- Jennifer Tilly as Queen Gunhilda
- Janet McTeer as Dell
- Sally Crooks as Dell's Mother
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Tideland at the Internet Movie Database
- Official movie website for Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Tideland
- Dreams (Terry Gilliam fanzine): Tideland
- Fipresci, the international federation of film critics
- Official website for The San Sebastian Festival
- Ain't It Cool News review of Tideland
- Review of Tideland on DVD at www.sci-fi-online.com
| Films directed by Terry Gilliam |
|---|
| Monty Python and the Holy Grail • Jabberwocky • Time Bandits • The Crimson Permanent Assurance • Brazil • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen • The Fisher King • Twelve Monkeys • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas • The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (unfinished) • The Brothers Grimm • Tideland |
