If ever there was a movie that divides opinion then it could well be this one.It isn't always easy to watch,there are moments of magic but ultimately it failed to hold my attention.I will try and explain why but it might not be that easy! The film starts off pretty uneasily with scenes of a young girl helping her Father to inject drugs.Then we meet the Mother(Queen Gunhilda) who is annoying and overacted to the hilt by Jennifer Tilly.Fortunately she doesn't last long but then again neither does Noah as played by Jeff Bridges.The film starts to go very odd indeed as we are introduced to a brother and sister,Dell and Dickens.They are played well by Janet McTeer and Brendan Fletcher but in the end they become irritating.As the young girl,Jodelle Ferland does a great job as Jeliza-Rose and pretty much holds the film together.It would take too long to go into the plot but the film is seen through the eyes of a child and when you take this into account it is a bit easier to follow the thread of the movie.

Terry Gilliam deserves credit for always attempting to make something different but his vivid imagination isn't always to my taste and there are scenes that made me cringe such as when Dickens straddles the young girl and they are almost touching tongues.OK,it is the way many children would act when they are fooling around but when one is much older than the other it bordered on cringe worthy awkwardness,at least to me.Or am I just a prude?Maybe I am as Dickens is a child also,at least mentally.I didn't like their kissing scenes though and that's a fact.The biggest problem I had really was I felt the film lost it's way after half way as the characters became a pain.Even Jeliza-Rose began to grate on the nerves a little with her doll voices.I didn't like the ending of the film either.It felt very contrived with Jeliza-Rose mistaking an injured passenger for Dickens and her finding another apparent lost soul.

I didn't hate the movie but I certainly didn't love it either.Terry Gilliam may just have too much imagination for my liking.The film has it's moments but loses itself in it's own very weird world.The director does try to make a different kind of movie but I did expect more.

Rocker Noah (Jeff Bridges) and his wife Queen Gunhilda (Jennifer Tilly) are both addicts. Their daughter Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) is the only adult in the family. She even prepares the heroin needles for them. When the mother dies, Noah takes Jeliza-Rose to his family home in the middle of nowhere rural Texas. Noah quickly dies from an overdose. Jeliza-Rose encounters Dell (Janet McTeer) who she thought at first a ghost. Dell lives with her mentally-challenged brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher). Jeliza-Rose befriends Dickens in sometimes sexual play. She also creates four minions Sateen Lips, Glitter Gal, Mustique and Baby Blonde with dismembered doll heads.

This is a muddled, imaginative, and a little creepy. The most controversial is some foreplay between nine-year-old Jodelle and the mentally challenged Dickens. It's very uncomfortable. If Terry Gilliam is unwilling to push the envelop, it's better to not linger on the issue. Suggestions would be more compelling than the icky feel of all the teasing. The story itself is a muddled mix of limited fantasy and unsatisfying reality. Sometimes, the fantasy like the underwater scene works but many times, it looks unfinished. The jarring reality of the situation is problematic at best. The fantasy works better. The movie should stay with the homes and the grassy fields. The best part is Jodelle Ferland. She takes control of the movie and never lets go. Gilliam needs someone to take control of the writing while giving him free-reign over the visual concepts.

When the dysfunctional Queen Gunhilda (Jennifer Tilly) dies of overdose, her daughter Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) travels with her addicted father Noah (Jeff Bridges) to the old and abandoned house of Noah's mother in the country. While her father takes "a vacation" injecting drugs, Jeliza-Rose lives a world of fantasy with her heads of doll Sateen Lips, Glitter Gal, Mustique and Baby Blonde. Noah dies in his trip, and Jeliza-Rose meets the insane Dell (Janet McTeer) and her retarded brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher), spending most of the time together.

I do not know whether Terry Gilliam was in an acid trip when he wrote the dark, bizarre and insane "Tideland", but it is one of the craziest movies I have ever seen. However, I liked the originality of the story. I could never guess the insanity of the next scene of this unpredictable film. I was also very impressed with the maturity and performance of Jodelle Ferland in her difficult lead work. This little girl is the story, and it is amazing and impressive, for example, the sequences with Jeliza-Rose preparing the dope of her father. The nightmarish atmosphere and the music score complete this original and unique journey to the irrational world of Terry Gilliam. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Contraponto" ("Counterpoint")