Tideland - Movie Review

Ah, a night to myself. Just me, myself and I. But then the question remains: What to rent? I spend way too long every time I go to Blockbuster. I carefully inspect every DVD, making sure none are overlooked. On my second trip around the store last night, I spot “Tideland”. I know absolutely nothing about it, but the description on the back, and the recommendation from “Ain’t It Cool News” sells it for me. I take home “Tideland”.

The DVD begins with a warning from director Terry Gilliam. He says that most people won’t get it, but he hopes a few will. He says that the film is very disturbing, but you have to put yourself in the little girl’s shoes. The entire film is from her perspective, and you have to imagine the sense of wonder that a child has about everything. He ends by telling us that he’s finally found his inner voice, and it’s a little girl.

Begins with a warning from the director? I like it already.

“Tideland” centers around a little girl Jeliza Rose, played amazingly by Jodelle Ferland (Silent Hill, The Messengers), whose mother, Jennifer Tilly, dies in the beginning of the film. Jeliza Rose then goes to live with her father, Jeff Bridges, out in the country. She helps her father “go on vacation” i.e. shoot up heroin that she’s cooked for him, and he falls asleep. Jeliza Rose happily prances around the house, in the attic, and outside in the fields with her best friends: 4 doll heads that have distinctive voices (all voiced by Jodelle Ferland) and distinctive personalities.

During her escapades, she meets a “ghost” lady who lives nearby named Dell, and her mentally challenged and epileptic brother Dickens. Jeliza Rose quickly makes Dell her best friend, and Dickens her husband, all while her father is “on vacation” in the rocking chair in the living room of her house. I didn’t know what to think of this movie. After it ended, I was left with a feeling of “huh”. I was hoping that after I slept on it, a revolution would come to me and I would love this film. It’s the kind of movie that I would really like. It has the potential to be a kind of “Goonies” for grown ups, what with the adult themes seen through the eyes of a child, but it just falls short. I loved the imagery, especially the fireflies being seen as fairies. There’s a really funny quote from Jeliza Rose, while thinking perhaps the squirrel that has infested her attic might be a fairy, she rules that out by saying, “Squirrel butts don’t glow”. The child-like imagination of Jeliza Rose and Dickens is intriguing as well. For example, the two of them are always trying to capture the “monster shark” i.e. the train that runs by their houses, and they’re always putting “bait” on the train tracks. Dickens is also a “captain of a submarine” and walks around with flippers and goggles. You really feel for their innocence, thus the adult situations around them are intensified to the audience.

I suppose, now that I reflect on it, that I really did like “Tideland”. “Huh”… I don’t think it’s one that I would recommend to many people though. No, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re a fan of weird, bizarre, indie movies, then by all means, it deserves checking out.