MovieChat Forums > Tideland (2006) Discussion > Actually happened or fantasy?

Actually happened or fantasy?

posted 15 years ago by wazza88
8 replies | jump to latest

I just watched the film, and in my mind at the time everything that we saw happened. The fantasy aspects involved Jeliza-Rose and the doll's heads (so when she imagined them in her dad's stomach etc) or when she pretends that she's swimming (so the house rocks back and forward like a boat and fills up with water).

However, in the summary on here, the author has said "With Noah passed out, the girl mentally transfers to a fantasy worlds she and her doll heads enter magically. In its adventures she also stars the crazy locals, notably Dell, her domineering hag ma and adult, but retarded brother Dickens."

This would imply to me that everything up until the train crash was fantasy, that she imagined Dell and Dickens. People will point to the fact that she saw Dell at the crash, but this could have been a figment of her imagination, just like when she thought she heard and saw Dickens there as well.

As Dell was such an overblown, unrealistic character, this is probably more plausible, but we never received any indication that she had full transformed into this completely fantasy world if this is the case.

So what are the views of everyone else?

[–] spaced_7 15 years ago

You see I just think that was a bad summary. I think a lot of what happened did happen, mainly because some of it is too adult for a child to understand.
I mean think about the scene with the delivery boy, and some of the scenes such as stuffing the corpses and Dickens' childhood with Jeliza-Rose's Grandmother.
Some of it is way too graphic and adult, as well as out of Jeliza-Rose's intelligence.
Not just that, but then comes the question as to why the train exploded and where would her father be? Did he even die?

"Back home we got a taxidermy man he gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him"- Quint

[–] EmmanKiddo 14 years ago

I think Dickens exploded with the dynamites or whatever he had! And he died while doing it.

[–] perorewen 14 years ago

Dell and Dickens being just fragments of her imagination is a very interesting point of view which I've never conisdered before.
However, as said above, both Dell and Dickens are involved in and refer to so many things that I very much doubt this girl could have imagined herself.

The dolls, however, are fantasy.

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[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

[quote]mainly because some of it is too adult for a child to understand. [/qute]
you clearly underestimate children. a child may come up with such scenes, especialyl considering how unrealistic the stuffing of father was.

--------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing.

[–] lanis_cupus 11 years ago

Quite true. And this follows with the overarching theme of the movie, which centers around how much we underestimate the complexity of children.

That's the most you'll ever get out of me Wordman. Ever. -Eddie Wilson

[–] franzkabuki 14 years ago

What´s the difference?

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] starrychloe 11 years ago

Jeliza has schizophrenia, Dell has schizoid personality disorder, Dickens has autism/retardation w/epilepsy, and the delivery driver has avoidant personality disorder or social anxiety. Everything happened, except the part with flying doll heads and underwater scene (and it's a movie).

[–] Hugh-Jorgen 11 years ago

They actually happened; for no other reason then simply the little girl had no way to sustain herself once her father died. Dell fed her. That's why when she was discovered with Dickens in the mother's room, Dell told her she would get no more food. I realize this may be a simplistic view, but it's accurate considering there was no food or water in that house out in the middle of nowhere.