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Okay, finaly finished watching this Terry Gilliam film.
Basically, if you want to watch the film in it's untouched non-spoiledness, I recommend not reading further, MILD SPOILERS ahead, but I won't destroy the movie for you.
SUMMARY
The movie deals with how children percieve reality as a result of their upbringing.
Basically, this movie is about a little girl named Jeleza Rose (Jodelle Ferland) who is put in a traumatic situation of her upbringing that only gets worse and worse. She basically escapes further and further into her imagination as the film progresses. There is some content to the film that will upset people, although somehow I was not upset by this content due to the fact that Jodelle Ferland was so cute and innocent, and basically carried me through the upsetting situations and was pretty much unscathed by the whole thing. If ashe had gotten really hurt by what happened I think I might have turned it off or been traumatized myself.
SPOILED SLIGHTLY MORE
This film contains:
Drugs administered by children
Dead bodies
Taxadermy of the animal and non-animal nature
Surrealness
Borderline pedophilia
I can't say anymore without totally spoiling it for you so lets do that now...
TOTALLY "SPOILED" TO PERFECTION
Jeleza's parents are heroin addicts. In the begginning of the film Jeleza's mother (Jen Tilly) dies due to heroin withdrawal. Her rockabilly dad (Jeff Bridges) then flees with her to his grandma's house where he grew up as a child, a place called Jutland, later called Tideand by the father in one of his drug-induced heroin sessions.
Basically it's Jeleza's job to ready the heroin for him. This ends abruptly as her father overdoses leaving him dead for the rest of the film. Jeleza doesn't know this of course and throughout the film her perception of life and death is altered in this respect.
Jeleza plays with dolls heads throughout the film and has conversations with them, yes, they talk back. Her dad, in a sence, becomes a large life sized doll in that he's there lifeless throughout the movie, and she still talks to him like a doll.
Enter Dell (Janet McTeer), the crazy lady. She lives in the house next door. As a child she must have been traumatized in some way, although we don't know how. We do know that her dad kept bees that escaped and killed her mom. We also know that her dad is dead, and SUPRISE!! She's a taxadermist of animals and humans. She's "stuffed" (for lack of a better word) her mother, and she keeps her in the a bedroom. She also stuffs Jeleza's father, and he lays in the bed in her house. One may delve into the topic that Dell had a messed up childhood and as a result believes that the dead can hang around the house after they are dead, instead of being buried, as she does in fact state. One can then see the cycle tying to continue itself with Jeliza if she remains in Tideland.
Enter Dickens, Dell's epileptic/retarded brother. He's retarded from surgury to separate the two halves of his brain. Evidentally it didn't work, and the surgery may have been performed by Dell, although it's never quite explained. Obviously he's suffered brain damage from the surgery leaving him mentally retarded.
Dickens becomes involved in a sort of friendship/boyfriend thingee with Jeliza. We learn that when Dickens was a child, Jeleza's grandma basically had a friendship/boyfriend thingee with him. This is mentioned briefly, and then they proceed with a borderline pedophilia relationship. But wait Ted, it either is or it isn't. Well, technically it is, but he never molests her unwillingly he only kisses her, and no tounge. She is also accepting of this, and pretends to be his wifew for lack of not knowing any better. He is retarded and doesn't seem to know any better either, so again, it's borderline. This also can be delved into as Dickens has had a traumatic upbringing, and the cycle is trying to continue itself with Jeliza as long as she continues to remain in Tideland.
At the end of the film Dickens blows up a railroad train that runs through Tideland with sticks of dynamite he stole from a nearby quarry. Basically symbolic of reality comming crashing in, hopefully to save the day. But many of the people have been injured by the blast. Jeleza doesn't seem to see anything wrong with this. In fact, she thinks she sees Dickens around the train, jumping for joy, and she's happy that he's happy he blew up the train. Again, her reality has been altered by her upbringing.
At this point Jeleza meets a woman from the train that also appears to be normal, we hope, and the movie ends with the woman thinking Jeliza was on the train and not stranded in Tideland. One can only imagine the social working and therapy sessions that will most likely follow, but the movie ends with the two clutching each other.
SYNOPSIS
The movie deals with how children percieve reality as a result of their upbringing. Anamism, which is the act of children giving life to stuffed animals, (or in this case people) with their imagination, is dealt with. The film also covers neglect, drugs in the home, innapropriate relationships with children and adults, and other forms of child abuse. Nicely done work of art that is more fun to delve into like I've just done than it is to watch as a regular film with an ending that brings closure. Kind of like, "The Machinist."
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