Tideland (2005) by Terry Gilliam - (4/10)

Tideland was a love or hate kind of movie with the majority centring around hate. There are those who deem it a masterpiece but they are a minority, it failed financially everywhere except for Japan where it strangely was a box-office hit apparently. Michael Palin, has said that it was either Terry Gilliam’s best or worst movie but he couldn’t decide.

The best way to describe Tideland is to say that it is a children’s story version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre but that sounds way cooler than this movie really is. It is dull, it is about how children see the world, what it is like in extremely bad situation such as this. It has a Terry Gilliam vibe to it. The whole idea, not only am I sick about artist going on about the virtues of a children’s mind or their childhood, this movie is too long, doesn’t seem to go anywhere and is rather unpleasant to watch.
Tideland was released together with “The Brothers Grimm” in 2005. Although the former was largely panned, I did find it better than most and unquestionably superior to Tideland. The girl (Jodelle Ferland) did play rather well as did Jeff Bridges.