<p>Somebody somewhere really doesn't like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam" target="_blank">Terry Gilliam</a>.</p>
<p>After finishing our <em>Twin Peaks</em> festival over the weekend*, James and I watched <a href="http://www.tidelandthemovie.com/" target="_blank"><em>Tideland</em></a>, Gilliam's adaptation of a novel by <a href="http://www.mitchcullin.com" target="_blank">Mitch Cullin</a>. J. has read the novel, and I haven't, but we've both been curious to see the film. We both like Terry Gilliam's movies, and we've both been interested to see how he handled the potentially controversial elements of the story, a twisted <em>Alice in Wonderland</em>**: a little girl cooking heroin for her junkie father who dies and spends much of the story decomposing in a chair; and, more dangerously, the relationship between the girl and a mentally handicapped 20-year-old man. </p>
Because the <a href="http://www.towertheatre.com" target="_blank">Salt Lake Film Society</a> often brings films to SLC that wouldn't ordinarily make it to a city this size, we kept expecting to be able to see <em>Tideland</em> at the theater. It never showed up here, and I finally bought the DVD. Because of the way the movie was reviewed, we expected something really shocking, graphic and provocative. A few examples of typical reviewer responses: 
<p class="quote">“Tidelandâ€ unfolds on the borderline between fantasy and reality, which is familiar territory for its director, Terry Gilliam.... he has set out for that frontier, but this time he has stumbled into a different no-man’s land, the one between the merely bad and the completely indefensible.... The worst that can be said of the first two-thirds of “Tidelandâ€ is that it is tiresome. Toward the end it becomes creepy, and not in a good way. (<a href="http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/movies/13tide.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>)</p><br>
<p class="quote">...there may be no excuse for this ugly, disturbing, and misguided mess.(<a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/gbase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3a413780" target="_blank">Austin Chronicle</a>)</p><br>
<p class="quote">The dismal subject matter is beautifully shot, but Tideland merrily dances on the line between the merely unpleasant and the completely unwatchable. (<a href="http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=11177" target="_blank">Empire Magazine</a>)</p>
<p>Along with these dismal evaluations of the film, J. read reports of people walking out of screenings, presumably because they were so disturbed by the film's portrayal of "pedophilia." Having seen the movie, I find it difficult to figure how charges of "pedophilia" could be leveled, given the fact that the adult with whom Jeliza-Rose has an "inappropriate" relationship is clearly mentally still a child and, more importantly, the fact that the most "sexual" act between the two is their pretending to French kiss by sticking their tongues out at each other***. Far more disturbing, for me, than anything between these two is Dickens's story about the "nice old lady" (Jeliza-Rose's grandmother) who kissed him and "did this" (pokes tongue in and out) with her tongue in his mouth. Ewww!!!
<p><em>Tideland</em> most assuredly is not Terry Gilliam's best work, but it is not offensive in the way some critics have indicated&mdash;at least not to me. Throughout the film, I kept waiting for something SHOCKING, and it simply never materialized. I can't imagine what people are thinking, why there were so many strong negative responses. The film is beautifully shot&mdash;Gilliam is as adept as ever at creating a visually stunning new world that merges the real and the fantastical. That is, I think, his greatest gift as a director. <em>Tideland</em> also evinces Gilliam's well-developed sense of the grotesque, something remarked upon disparagingly by reviewers. That particular criticism makes me wonder whether those people have seen any of Gilliam's other films. From Python to now, the grotesque has been an integral part of his vision. Just ask my students, whose little minds are being blown this week by a screening of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(film)" target="_blank"><em>Brazil</em></a>.
<p>On a completely unrelated note (but also one for the WTF?! files): Why are the girls working in the coffee shop (where I'm writing) affecting English accents today?</p>
<p class="note">*James has been waiting for the second season of <em>Twin Peaks</em> to be released on video since, well, since I've known him. It's finally out, so we spent several evenings last week and most of the weekend watching the 29 episodes. Oy vey. Some of it was good. Who knew Diane Keaton had directed an episode of <em>Twin Peaks</em>?.</p>
<p class="note">**Among other things&mdash;the <em>Alice</em> comparison is just the easiest and most obvious. </p>
<p class="note">***Granted, they are on a bed, and Dickens, the man-child, is straddling Jeliza-Rose, but they are fully clothed and giggling throughout the scene.</p>