DVD review
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Starring Jodelle Ferland, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher, Jennifer Tilly, Jeff Bridges
Release date Out now

After her alcoholic mother (Jennifer Tilly) and rock-star father (Jeff Bridges) die from drug overdoses, young Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) moves to her deceased grandmother’s house in a rural wasteland. She befriends a mentally disturbed young man, Dickens (Brendan Fletcher), but is wary of his mother, the sinister Dell (Janet McTeer). In light of her misfortunes, Jeliza-Rose gradually slips into her own fantasy world...

Terry Gilliam shot this low-budget dark fable in a six-month hiatus during the making of The Brothers Grimm, so, in effect, we have the production problems of one disappointing movie to blame for yet another. Based on a novel by Mitch Cullin and adapted by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni, Tideland comes on like Alice’s Adventures in the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or The Fisher King meets Psycho.

It’s one of those films where such a description – and Gilliam’s name – should get you dashing to see it, but the once-visionary director seems to have lurched way off the rails, and the virtually formless avant-garde approach is more off-putting than compelling.

Jodelle Ferland dominates the film but, despite a performance that is mature beyond her years, hers are still small shoulders on which to carry an entire movie. Gilliam is clearly the most inspired when delving into Jeliza-Rose’s thoughts, mostly involving severed dolls heads that come alive, as she ignores reality to the point of almost pathological sickness. Elsewhere, it’s dour and depressing, and not nearly as elaborate or involving as Pan’s Labyrinth, which it vaguely resembles in a bare-bones form.

This two-disc edition does at least provide plenty of additional material, from a Gilliam and Grisoni commentary to a short documentary on Gilliam by Cube director Vincenzo Natali, which also has a commentary track of its own. Ian Calcutt

VERDICT: 4/10
Overwrought, downbeat and generally lacking the levity and imagination for which Terry Gilliam is best known.