Sometimes directors "fall out of favor" really just because my tastes in movies change with time. But this is something different. I still really enjoy Gilliam's older movies: 12 Monkeys, The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen, Brazil, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
But something has definitely changed since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.. I was disappointed by Brother's Grimm, when i saw it in the theater, but i was willing to attribute that to (the widely reported) interference from the Brothers Weinstein. Gilliam himself reportedly said "Brothers Grimm helped him line up financing for Tideland," which i figured was a good thing, because Tideland was going to be a low budget pet project, and i was really looking forward to seeing Gilliam's pet creation.
Which brings us to this weekend, when i received Tideland (bought it used from Netflix.) I knew nothing at all about the movie, except that Gilliam had written the script and directed it. (I often avoid reading about movies i know i am going to see, because i prefer to see them without any preconceptions.) I guess i was sort of expecting something artsy, like Mirrormask, which was a little too esoteric for me to really get into, but i'd still enjoyed it a lot.
I could not have been any more wrong.
To be blunt, Tideland is a horrible, horrible movie. It is in fact a horror movie, except that where traditional horror movies scare with gore and suspense, Tideland simply overwhelms the viewer with an continuous and gruesome concepts and plot. I cannot imagine why or how any sane person would would enjoy to seeing it.
The problem is not at all the acting, nor the cinematography, or even the quality of the writing or direction. The problem is simply that the story itself is gruesome. It's so repellant that someone (perhaps Gilliam) felt the need to put Gilliam on screen before the movie (or at least the DVD), where he says something to the effect of "Many of you will hate this movie. Many of you will love this movie. And many of you will be wondering what was going on after it's over." After talking about how the movie is from the perspective of a 10 year-old and that children are amazingly resilient, he then adds "Don't forget to laugh." A director who comes on screen before his movie and tells you how to feel has failed. He had ~two hours to communicate something, and if he needs to fill the screen with his big dumb head and tell you what you feel, he has massively screwed up.
(Spoiler alert)
You can read the plot at Wikipedia, for the full, gruesome details. I will only add that i was relieved when after two hours, the movie was finally brought to a close by a train wreck. Yes, relieved at a train wreck.
I know Gilliam is working on Good Omens and i hope he doesn't screw it up like his last two movies. But even if it's great, i doubt he'll ever be a "favorite" director again; Tideland was simply too horrible.