Overwhelmed by Tideland

Tideland
Capri Films ; Recorded Picture Company; Distributed by Maple Pictures, 2007.
Screenplay by Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni.
Directed by Terry Gilliam.

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Starring:
• Jodelle Ferlan
• Brendan Fletcher
• Janet McTeer
• Jeff Bridges
• Jennifer Tilly

Someone at work suggested I review this so they could find out if it was worth watching. I looked at the cute but cool cover, read the blurb on the back "As optimistic as it is surreal, as humourous as it is suspenseful -- TIDELAND is a celebration of the power of imagination" and decided that I'd probably enjoy this movie. I like Terry Gilliam and have seen most of his movies and figured it was a good choice because it was based on a book by Mitch Cullin that I could also link to. I am so sorry that I decided that. Somehow I missed David Cronenberg's "poetic horror film" quote on the front. If it hadn't been for this review I would have turned the movie off. I haven't been so disturbed in a long time.

I was expecting Tim Burton's Big Fish but got Cronenberg's Naked Lunch filtered through David Lynch. Now I really like those directors and am a fan of dark, weird movies but that's when I'm expecting it. This movie was a total shock. It was only upon looking for other reviews of it today that I realized it had an 18A rating. I don't like horror films even if they are arthouse intellectual.

It features the little girl from Silent Hill. We're celebrating her powers of imagination and boy, does she need them! Her parents are drug addicts who abuse her in the sense that she's taking care of them and even cooking their hits. After her mom ODs on methadone, her father drags her off to an isolated farmhouse he grew up in. Then he accidentally ODs but the little girl keeps pretending he's alive. She snuggles on his lap, reads him stories, tries to feed him peanut butter. What else can a little girl stranded in the middle of the prairies do? She explores the house and countryside while having imaginary conversations with her barbie doll heads, each representing a different aspect of her personality (pretty, smart, confident, ugly, scared, dumb). Enter the crazy, in-bred neighbours. Her relationships with them are what creeped me out. The older sister turns out to be an old girlfriend of the dead dad. She's a taxidermist, need I say more? The brother is older than the main character Jeliza-Rose but slow. He's a perfect playmate since he imagines he's the Captain of a submarine and goes on shark hunts. They even pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend...which is icky and made my skin crawl.

There are some really beautiful moments cinematographically; underwater dreams with sheer fabric as seaweed, glorious light as she swims through a wheat field, magical nights as she watches fireflies. Even the creepy atmosphere is beautiful, oppressive red hues and shadows draw you in and make your heart beat faster. This is like a really really really dark, twisted Alice in Wonderland -- but NOT for kids.