I didn't think I could be entertained by watching a little girl being traumatised for life in various ways for almost two hours.
Is it a weird movie?
Why, yes. Yes, it is. That is if you consider a movie weird if it contains a scene of a corpse being taxidermied to keep a deceised person around then placed at the dinner table with the still living part of the family. But it is weird in that way without being a gory horrow or torture movie.
Would Jean-Pierre Jeunet like this film?
I don't know Jean-Pierre Jeunet or what movies he likes. But Tideland reminded me of his movies' style very much. Camera work, colors, character weirdness, music and the naturalness of unusual events made me suspect that it may be intentionally a tribute to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's work. But that's a silly thought.
Is it a children's movie?
I never understood the criteria for which movies are considered children's movies and which are not. But this one might genuinly be impossible to classify as either. It seems to be a children's movie, telling the story of a child from her point of view, with imaginative play and all. But who would want to show such fucked up shit to a child? Well, actually, why not? Some other children's stories aren't any better. And some, like some of Grim's fairy tales, are more gory than this one.
Shouldn't you have started this with an explanation of what the movie is about?
No. But here are a few keywords: girl, heroin, child abuse, death, friendship, decomposition, mummification, family, adventure,
Why is Brendan Fletcher doing this weird autistic-like act?
I don't know but you can't say it's offensive because he's not actually portraying an autistic man but a man who has part of his brain removed. Still offensive but for different reasons? Well, okay. Anyway. I found his role quite nice and well acted.
So, is it a horrow movie or isn't it?
Does it have a romance component in the story?
In an unusual, awkward way, yes, kind of. Well, calling it a romance would legitimise it. It's definitely not the usual cliché romance component. So, no.
What is it that you like about it?
I don't know. I think like how different normalities of life circumstances are introduced without any inhibition or restraint in a somehow lighhearted seeming way.
And the consistancy in the changes throughout the story.
What is this movie a mix of?
I'd say Fear And Laughing In Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam) and The City Of The Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet).
Can you show us some paradigmatic screen captures?
OK. But not from the end bit. Here you go.