Tideland
“Tideland” represents Terry Gilliam unleashed. It’s unlikely film fans will have seen a film this polarizing since Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” also about a bizarre journey where exposure to drugs played a major role. That film was indefensible on any artistic terms, even if it did represent Gilliam’s undilluted imagination.
“Tideland,” however, is more complex. Prior to the film Gilliam comes onscreen to inform us that the film is entirely seen from the perspective of its’ young protagonist Jeliza-Rose (Jadelle Ferland, in a performance that’ll be hard to forget for everyone who sees the film), and that some of us will hate the film, others will love it, while others still will be befuddled by it. It may seem like something of a rebuttle to the critics who trashed the movie at the Toronto Film Festival. One would think Gilliam wouldn’t feel the need to answer his critics, and let the work do the talking. However, Gilliam’s been battered pretty badly of late. The sole American from Monty Python, his career as a solo director has had dramatic ups and downs, from the highs of acclaim that came with 1985’s “Brazil” (to many, his best film; the LA Film Critics forced Universal into releasing Gilliam’s cut over the studio-butchered print by giving it best picture for the year), 1991’s “The Fisher King,” and 1995’s “Twelve Monkeys” (which has aged exceptionally well the past 11 years, and is my pick for Gilliam’s best) to the lows of recent years like the forementioned “Fear and Loathing,” the aborted production of his intriguing “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” (chronicled in the must-see documentary “Lost in La Mancha”), and the studio interference that hampered last year’s oft-delayed “The Brothers Grimm.” During his “Grimm” bouts, Gilliam found independent financing for “Tideland,” adapted from the cult novel by Mitch Cullin by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni. It wasn’t what he could get from the studios, but it gave him the creative freedom he normally has to fight for.
It’s understandable how the film has scared off critics. Gilliam’s film moves a little too leisurely at just under two hours, but it illicits an emotional response from the viewer. Whether it’s good or bad is totally subjective- I think I get a little of what Gilliam was attempting to do, and though it may not quite succeed- we’ll get to why later- it’s none the less fascinating to watch. “Tideland” begins with an establishment of Jeliza-Rose’s father Noah (Jeff Bridges, effective in this brief but unsettling role) as a rock musician trying to hold on to a career going nowhere. And it is going nowhere. Noah and Jeliza-Rose’s mother Queen Gunhilda (Jennifer Tilly) are hard-core junkies, not afraid to get their fix in front of their young daughter (Noah even has his daughter getting the needle ready for him to shoot up). When her mother ODs, Noah and Jeliza-Rose leave the body and headoff to his mother’s abandoned house in the country. It’s a dump, but it’s a retreat of sorts. Noah barely even tries to parent Jeliza-Rose, who seems in an everlasting fantasy world, holding discussions with the disembodied heads of dolls whom she gives voice to, before he himself ODs, leaving her in the care- so to speak- of Dell (who was once in love with Noah, and is played with just the right level of looney by Janet McTeer) and Dickens (Brendan Fletcher as a “Gump”-ish characature), her mentally-scarred brother whose own imagination fits right in with Jeliza-Rose’s ongoing fantasy world.
From here is where the film becomes- in a sense- more of a Grimm fairy tale than anything in “The Brothers Grimm,” and the type of movie that critics have found indefensible. I couldn’t help but remained intrigued by where Gilliam was taking this story. I’ve found it described as “a celebration of the power of a child’s imagination,” but it’s more an unnerving look at the effects of having two junky parents who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about you (except for helping them with their next fix, the sight of which is particularly reeling for a viewer), and likely having been exposed to drugs intensely while still in the womb. Jeliza-Rose never had a chance- how else could she possibly do anything but live in a fantasy? It’s also here where Gilliam- and one would probably be right to assume Cullin- misstep in their revision of their American Gothic “Alice in Wonderland”…
…well, at least it feels like it missteps in the time after both parents have died. There’s certainly an uneasiness in the idea of a mentally-troubled young girl, an older male who acts like a ten year old (the idea of them as a “romantic couple”- introducing pedophilia to already troubling material- is certainly unwelcome territory to enter), both of whom live in their own worlds (though the two mesh well into one another), as our protagonists. In form, the film feels more like “Fear and Loathing”- which was a plotless exercise in crudity and surreal imagery (in the worst possible way)- than it does other films, but unlike that movie, the drug abuse resonates with a purpose (if you will), even if it means letting go of all your preconceptions about narrative filmmaking and just running with the film’s (and by extension, its’ heroine’s) skewed point-of-view. That the film lacks a real emotional core between Jeliza-Rose and Dickens- and seems emotionally abusive towards Jeliza-Rose (except at the end, where a train crash opens the door to maybe some hope for her to have a normal life)- isn’t surprising given the two character’s complete disconnect with reality.
On the surface, “Tideland” seems like a nihilistic exercise in cruelty- whether it’s towards its heroine (or even Dickens, really) or its audience depends on whether you have the endurance to look past the surface, and try and find a deeper meaning. It’s not easy to see, but I’d argue it’s there. Whether you think so or not, you can’t help but put Gilliam in that rare breed of filmmakers (think Oliver Stone in particular) whose work is best left to speak for itself. What it says to you depends on how far you’re willing to follow it. Gilliam took me down his own personal rabbit hole with “Tideland.” I wanted to follow it down again to unlock its’ secrets. I can’t say you’ll want to do the same, but I can hope you’ll see why I wanted to.
