Blu-ray Review: Tideland

2018 will go down as a landmark in the history of cinema. Finally, after so many false starts and aborted attempts, we’ll be able to see The Man Who Killed Don Quixote on the big screen. It’s a film Terry Gilliam has been trying to make since 1989. There have been countless close calls over the years, and even a documentary, but we’ll finally get the chance to see if it was worth the wait. Gilliam is a director who for every Brazil or Baron Munchausen produces a Zero Theorum or Doctor Parnassus. Tideland fits somewhere in the middle.

After the death of her disturbed mother (Jennifer Tilly), Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) is taken by her father (Jeff Bridges) to a secluded farmhouse in rural Texas. When he dies of an overdose, she’s left to her own devices, with only her rampant imagination to occupy her and dismembered Barbie doll-heads for friends. That’s until she encounters Dicken (Brendan Fletcher), a young man with learning disabilities, and his strange elder sister Dell (Janet McTeer).

Tideland is an extremely strange film which flirts with a few rather messy subjects but just about gets away with it. Only just at times. It works best when Gilliam allows Jeliza-Rose to disappear inside her own mind, revelling in unrestricted solitude. Indeed, the fantasy scenes are its strong point, and her relationship with Dicken and Dell adds another layer within this peculiar world. Tideland is an odd film with lots of strong imagery and suggestion. One brimming with ideas which never really come together.

Special Edition Contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

• DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Commentary by writer-director Terry Gilliam and co-writer Tony Grisoni

• Introduction by director Terry Gilliam

• Getting Gilliam, a 45-minute documentary on the making of Tideland by Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice)

• The Making of Tideland featurette

• Filming Green Screen featurette with commentary by Gilliam

• Interviews with Terry Gilliam, producer Jeremy Thomas and actors Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland and Jennifer Tilly

• Deleted scenes with commentary by Gilliam

• B-roll footage