terry gilliam's most recent film, the financially underwhelming (now theres a surprise...) "tideland" proved to be an enriching experience. the overtly joyful story set amongst incredibly bleak surroundings draws obvious comparisons with guellermo del toro's "pan's labyrinth" and "the devils backbone".
jodelle ferland stars as the young girl jeliza-rose, in a performance that is best described as outstanding, especially when you consider the nature of the story and the fact that shes playing several roles (the dolls etc), and the fact that for the most part she is the sole actor on screen. brendan fletcher plays dickens, a heavily mentally handicapped boy in a role that saw my thoughts turn those i had upon initially seeing rinko kikuchi playing a deaf in babel; i presumed that it must be a genuinely disabled person playing the role. alas i was wrong, which only serves to show how impressive the performance was. there are cameo appearances from jeff bridges and jennifer tilly as jeliza-rose's ill-fated parents.
while the film took its time to get going, once it did i was obsessed with what was going on, which surprised me a great deal. the film is about being a child, as explained by gilliam's introduction to the work, and more importantly, it feels like you are watching the film as a child. gilliam clearly has a lot of passion for "tideland", and that projects clearly on to the project.
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