Tideland

views updated

Tideland ★ 2005 (R)

First 10-year-old Jeliza-Rose's (Ferland) junkie mom (Tilly) overdoses in L.A., prompting her junkie dad (Bridges) to drag her to a middleofnowhere Texas farmhouse where he, of course, overdoses, leaving the girl to retreat into a not-so-pleasant fantasy world with dear-old-dead-dad's corpse nearby. When not conversing with her headless dolls, she wanders the grassy fields near the train tracks, where she runs into some odd neighbors—a taxidermist who, um, helps Jeliza-Rose with the dead dad problem, and the woman's brother, a mentallychallenged manchild whose relationship with the young JelizaRose gets a little creepy. Ferland's excellent performance stands out in what is otherwise an unredeemable mess. Based on Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel. 122m/C DVD . CA GB Jodelle Ferland, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Tilly; D: Terry Gilliam; W: Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni; C: Nicola Pecorini; M: Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna.

More From encyclopedia.com