Featured Blu-ray Review: Tideland
September 10, 2018
Tideland: Special Edition - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Terry Gilliam has a mixed record when it comes to critics and box office numbers. This isn’t always his fault. The studio interference he dealt with during Brazil was legendary. However, when he’s left on his own, he can get carried away and create some monstrosities as well. Tideland was 100% independently made, so he had full control. Did this work out? Or does he need a studio to rein in his worst impulses?
The film opens with a brief moment from later in the movie, before switching back the start of the story. We are introduced to Jeliza-Rose’s family. First we see Noah in concert, but the former rock star's current life isn’t nearly as glamorous as his stage life. If he and his wife were in a loveless marriage, it would be a step up. It’s worse for their daughter; not only does she have to live in this environment with a drug addicted father and an abusive mother, it’s the only world she’s known, so she treats it as normal. For example, when we first see her, she’s preparing her father’s heroin for his “vacation”. This is clearly something she’s done countless times. As bad as this life is for Jeliza-Rose, it gets worse when her mother dies.
Noah panics, for a number of reasons, but one of them actually makes sense. If anyone sees how he is raising Jeliza-Rose, she’ll be taken away from him. So he decides to run away to the prairies, where his mother owns a house and some land. The place is abandoned when they get there, and appears to have been so for a long time. .. So Noah didn’t even know his mother had died. Jeliza-Rose settles in and brings out her only friends, four doll heads, Mustique, Sateen Lips, Baby Blonde, and Glitter Gal. Meanwhile, Noah knows what he has to do, so he goes on a “vacation”. Jeliza-Rose asks him to make it a short vacation, but it winds up being the last vacation he will ever go on. However, Jeliza-Rose doesn’t realize this has happened and explores her new home with her doll friends.
This is the best part of the movie and even then it lasts too long.
Eventually, Jeliza-Rose meets their neighbors, Dell, who is not emotionally stable. (If she were, she wouldn’t be in this movie.) Dell and Noah were an item before he left the country to become a rocker. At least Dell is able to deal with his corpse. Then there’s Dickens, her younger brother who has a severe learning disability. At first this is an improvement, because any supervision is better than just a dead father, while Dickens is the closest thing to a friend Jeliza-Rose has ever know. However, you just know no bright spot will stay bright for long, not in this movie.
Jodelle Ferland is the best part of this movie. Hands down. If it weren’t for her performance, this film would be unwatchable. The more fantastical elements of her imaginary world are also very well shot and are engaging to watch. On the other hand, there’s everything else. This is a dark movie that is difficult to watch. Being difficult to watch isn’t a negative by itself. For example, I loved 12 Years a Slave, but I hope I never have to watch that movie again. However, that film’s difficult nature came with a point. Tideland doesn’t have a point. Jodelle Ferland’s performance and some of the cool fantasy scene are engaging in isolation, but the rest of the movie is not worth sitting through to see them.
There are quite a lot of extras on this Blu-ray, including an audio commentary track, a 45-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, deleted scenes, etc. However, none of the extras on the disc itself are new and many of them have such a poor video quality that they are not really selling points. There is a new essay in a pamphlet that comes with the release. This is the first time it’s been released on Blu-ray, and the first time it’s been released with the correct aspect ratio, so that’s an important feature for a lot of people.
Terry Gilliam has had to deal with a lot of studio interference over his career, but with Tideland he had total control. And it is a mess. He needs a skilled producer to keep his wilder impulses under control. His technical skill filming fantasy sequences and Jodelle Ferland’s strong performance was not enough to keep this movie afloat. On the other hand, if you liked the movie and have been waiting to be able to buy the film with the proper aspect ratio, then the Special Edition Blu-ray is for you.
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland, Brendan Fletcher, Terry Gilliam, Janet McTeer, Jennifer Tilly