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.
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.