FOLLOWING THE CANCELLATION OF HIS CHERISHED DON QUIXOTE PROJECT AND THE DEBACLE OVER ‘THE BROTHERS GRIMM’, ‘TIDELAND’ SEES TERRY GILLIAM RETURNING TO THE KIND OF PERSONAL AND IMAGINATIVE FILM-MAKING THAT MADE HIS REPUTATION.

Based on Mitch Cullin’s acclaimed novel and described by Gilliam as ‘a cross between ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Psycho”, ‘Tideland’ is a dark fable about a precocious 10-year-old girl, Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland), who has developed her own fantasy world as a means of coping with her drug-addled parents. When her mother dies, Jeliza-Rose’s father Noah (Jeff Bridges) takes her on a trip to a dilapidated old house situated in the vast emptiness of the Texas prairies. Here she meets the black-garbed Dell (Janet McTeer), a woman from Noah’s past who has an obsession with taxidermy, and Dell’s mentally handicapped brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher), with whom Jeliza-Rose develops a quasi-sexual relationship.

As an independent production, ‘Tideland’ allowed Gilliam complete freedom and is his darkest film to date. Scenes of the young Jeliza-Rose preparing drugs for her parents and snuggling up to the 20-year-old Dickens have shocked some commentators. Yet this slice of American Gothic is at heart concerned with the innocence and resilience of childhood. As Gilliam has pointed out, it is his heroine’s innocence and imagination that allow her to cope with the horrors of real life. Although it has a sense of realism that gives it a disturbing edge, ‘Tideland’ also comes with Gilliam’s typically weird production design, striking wide-angle cinematography and truly fantastical touches such as talking squirrels and a swirl of CG fireflies.