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Terry Gilliam's Tideland

  • 28-12-2006 3:51pm
    #1
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,693 CMod ✭✭✭✭


    Looks like this has gotten totally passed over but I thought it was one the best films I've seen this year. It seems to be a love/hate film as I've noticed it turning up on a few "worst of" lists but I thought it was brilliant. A very thought provoking exploration of the innocence of a child and Gilliam isn't afraid to disturb you with what he finds.

    For Gilliam "reality" is not objective but subjective. We see the world not as it is but as society teaches us to see it. Jeliza-Rose' innocence allows her to see things differently, and without society her imagination paves the way. Gilliam correctly understands that the usual adult nostalgia that passes for childhood innocence in movies is rubbish. The truth is much darker and more disturbing but not for the child. This is what's so amazing and also challenging about Tideland, Jeliza-Rose suffers the most terrible things but her imagination and innocence (or ignorance if you like) allows her to swim straight through them.

    Almost as interesting as the film is people's reactions to it. Probably best watched alone. Close minded, insecure, pc bandwagon types need not apply.

    Did anyone else love this film? Gilliam fans?


Comments

  • #2
    Goodshape
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    I'd consider myself a Gilliam fan but I think he missed the mark with this one. I didn't enjoy it at all to be honest.

    The 'innocence of childhood' thing has been done many times before and to much better effect. The 'terrible things' which happen in Tideland were, I think, so outlandish that it made little difference to me that the child was taking it all as just another day. I didn't believe that these things could be happening in the first place, so believing that a child could be so calm during it all wasn't too much of an extra stretch -- and aside from that basic, flawed, premise all I saw was a long drawn out film about nothing in particular.

    And the young girls constant yapping (almost narration) annoyed me.


    Pan's Labyrinth had similar themes and was a much, much better film. Part of what made that film succeed so well in my opinion was the juxtaposition of the brutal realism of the 'adult' world and the fantasy dreamland of the young girl. There was nothing at all that felt real in Tideland.

    Disapointing, to be honest. And I didn't much like his last one (The Brothers Grimm) either, although I put that down to him owing the studio a 'safe' film after 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' fell through.


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