Review of the film 'Tideland'

This film was released in 2005 and directed by Terry Gilliam

This has to be one of the most mesmerizing and disturbing films i have ever seen!

The main character is 'Jeliza-Rose', a young girl whose parents are irresponsible drug addicts. When her mother dies, she and her father flee to the countryside and reside in her grans eerie and desolate house. I didn't really know the outcome of the plot before watching this film and I'm so glad because it completely took me by surprise. The film challenges viewers and pushes its boundaries to the limit - touching on subjects of death, drug use and sex all in front of the eyes of a child depending on herself.



The film has surrealist conventions, yet the plot still runs smoothly enough for us to understand. The outcomes in the narrative take us by surprise, it made me cringe and laugh at the same time. The portrayal of Jeliza-Rose makes viewers empathize with her, however it seems she is oblivious to what is going on around her and is happy enough in her own fantasy land where she only has her doll's heads for company. This character is innocent enough but seems to be too 'sweet' and actually comes across as quite creepy. I can imagine a lot of viewers wouldn't be comfortable watching this film however, and compared to Gilliam's older works that maybe he has gone too far.

My favorite character was 'Dell', a mad old woman in the house nearby who reminded me intensely of the witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A nasty character who we at first dislike, but when the film moves on we see this strange woman had a point to being in this and that is to help Jeliza-Rose, even if she didn't want to. Some of the scenes are mentally disturbing and are not easy to watch (e.g. preserving the corpse of Noah) etc. The film does end, and surprisingly i felt that it had ended (the house was cleaned from top to bottom and left to Jeliza-Rose), not a conventional ending and not giving an end to the drama that this character is in, yet we as viewers are cut off from this.



Overall i would definitely recommend this film, yes its disturbing/cringe making/shocking, but personally i prefer films like that - the film industry can be so repetitive and just provide us with mainstream rubbish that has no real impact on us. Tideland is one film that will stay with viewers for a long time and maybe its about time people were shocked every once in a while, it makes life a lot less dull!

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