"Tideland" is frustrating for the way it refuses to coalesce. You watch the film feeling abused and exploited, never knowing whether there's a bottom to this rabbit hole.
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11/16/06
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Tideland (2006)
27
%
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Reviews Counted:70
Fresh:19
Rotten:51
Average Rating:4/10
Consensus: Tideland is a disturbing, and mostly unwatchable effort from Terry Gilliam.
Theatrical Release:Oct 13, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Terry Gilliam, the director of such fantasies as TIME BANDITS, BRAZIL, and THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, tells a very different kind of story in TIDELAND. Based on the novel by Mitch Cullin... [More]
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland, Brendan Fletcher, Jennifer Tilly
Director: Terry Gilliam
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Reviews for Tideland
Ugly, disturbing, and misguided mess.
10/30/06
The movie is brave, strong, deeply felt, and frequently brilliant, and it does exactly what it sets out to do. But what it sets out to do is distressingly unpleasant.
10/13/06
Tideland contains more shining, jewel-like moments than most films. It will reward your patience.
09/23/06
Now, I like pushing boundaries as much as the next guy. When it's done well, as in say Todd Solondz' wonderfully dark Happiness, it can be searingly challenging. But in the case of Tideland it's just uncomfortable to watch.
07/14/07
This macabre fairy tale, a bizarre blend of surrealism and eccentricities, might be best described as a kinky cross of Psycho and Alice in Wonderland.
02/22/07
The movie itself feels like an overstuffed burrito: Nicola Pecorini's cinematography has verve but no visual sense, and the film's self-important pace turns deadening over the long haul.
10/27/06
Appropriately, Tideland ends with a train wreck.
10/15/06
It's no masterpiece, but it is a haunting, serious picture.
10/10/06
It's crazy, dangerous and sometimes gorgeous: a feast of nuttiness that takes you, for a while, over the edge.
10/19/06
Top CriticDespite a few psychologically insightful touches about how children learn to survive misery, Tideland is borderline unwatchable, although, as is true of all Gilliam movies, it certainly is different.
10/12/06
A movie that fits perfectly in the Terry Gilliam oeuvre, except for the fact that it is a dismal, rank bore that so misses the thematic mark that it becomes a complete nightmare.
10/09/06
Gilliam appears to be trying to throw us all off-guard, to make the theatergoing experience unpleasant. But in its own unlovable way, the movie is an unforgettable experience.
04/08/07
It seems, from the flat-out filmic disaster of "Tideland," that director Terry Gilliam is intent on ensuring a decisive end to his checkered filmmaking career.
04/24/09
Perhaps once we leave these squeamish times, Tideland will emerge like one of Welles' later films as a misunderstood classic.
10/27/06
Gilliam's weirdest -- and most disappointing.
04/03/07
I came very close to walking out of the screening room. And I never do that.
10/17/06
Top CriticPart Lewis Carroll, part Alfred Hitchcock, part Andrew Wyeth, part Terrence Malick and all Terry Gilliam, it is a unique and personal vision that, like it or not, will stick in your mind for a long time after you see it.
10/16/06
The dismal subject matter is beautifully shot, but Tideland merrily dances on the line between the merely unpleasant and the completely unwatchable.
09/23/06
The movie dies early on, but it keeps hanging around, looking a little more rotten with each new scene.
10/11/06
Top CriticLatest News for Tideland
February 27, 2008:
Total Recall: Fairy Tales for Grownups
On the festival circuit, Penelope, starring Christina Ricci as a pig-nosed recluse embarking upon the modern world for the first time, seemed to get about as much press... More...
November 18, 2005:
Time to face it. A lot of Gilliam's movies fail not because of some outside influence, but because of him. 
More...
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