TIDELAND

From Terry Gilliam, director of BRAZIL and TWELVE MONKEYS.

Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland, SILENT HILL) lives in squalor with her junkie parents, rocker Noah (Jeff Bridges, IRON MAN; THE BIG LEBOWSKI) and chain-smoking chocoholic Queen Gunhilda (Jennifer Tilly, BOUND; BRIDE OF CHUCKY).

Jeliza-Rose's life consists of preparing heroine for her father to inject into himself, reading him stories while he's high and suffering equal amounts of abuse and affection from her deranged mother. Little surprise, then, that the girl distances herself from reality at every opportunity by talking to several disembodied doll heads. The heads talk back too (voiced by Jeliza-Rose) and her best friend is the blonde one, Mystique.

When her mother overdoses on methadone, Jeliza-Rose and Noah flee their home and travel towards the great American countryside in search of Grandma's house. They find the building, in the middle of golden straw fields with only a rail track nearby to indicate any connection to civilization.

Grandma has gone and the house is run-down, but that doesn't stop the father and daughter moving in and calling the place their own. For a while, Jeliza-Rose and her dolls are happy playing at their new home. But when Noah dies, the girl stays in the home and become more distanced from reality - talking to squirrels, dressing her father's corpse up in wigs and make-up, that kind of thing.

When Jeliza-Rose eventually meets two other people who befriend her, they're even odder than her plastic friends. Dell (Janet McTeer, AS YOU LIKE IT) is a dotty old woman who's terrified of bees after being blinded in an eye by one. Her brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher, GINGER SNAPS BACK) is an edgy retard who's had a brain operation to temper his epilepsy, and who likes to swim (literally) through the overgrown straw fields.

A Gothic, twisted variant of traditional fairy tales (with some very blatant references to ALICE IN WONDERLAND), TIDELAND unravels as a story concerning a young girl alone in an adult world, with only her imagination to keep her from breaking down.

The story doesn't really go anywhere, and director Terry Gilliam's determination to make everything/everyone in the film odd soon becomes tedious.

It's all beautiful to look at, sure - the cinematography and rich colours are literally stunning, while the art design of the creepy houses these people populate is excellent. But in terms of pure storytelling, TIDELAND is way too long and too desperate to be quirky.

The performances are great. Ferland is a revelation as the little girl who doesn't understand the concept of death, and her conversing with the doll heads is at once eerie and amusing. She's possibly the best child actress out there at the moment, much more agreeable than the grating Dakota Fanning.

Bridges is grubbier than he was in THE BIG LEBOWSKI and clearly enjoys getting the chance to accentuate the Southern drawl. Tilly, meanwhile, is barely recognisable as a drag queen-type banshee. Fletcher has the most obviously gimmicky role as the retard, but pulls it off with the right amount of subtlety.

Gorgeous, fairly unique and filled with great performances. But bizarrely tedious regardless.

The screener disc I viewed only contained the film. It was presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 aspect ratio and looked fantastic. A great, pristine transfer with pin-sharp images and well saturated colours. The English 2.0 audio was equally competent.

The official DVD release appears to boast a Making Of documentary, behind the scenes footage, director's commentary, cast interviews and an interview with Gilliam exclusive to the UK release.

A girl trapped in a dark and gruesome world, escaping into fantasy up to a point then finding it hard to distinguish just where reality begins and ends? Try PAN'S LABYRINTH instead.

Review by Stu Willis