This is a really good movie. I’d say it’s Gilliam’s most mature work to date. Possibly (dare I say it?) better than Brazil, a movie I love. I even half paid attention to the commentary, which I usually don’t do. Gilliam and his co-writer make snide remarks about the critical reception of the film. It’s pretty funny.

Anyway, do take everyone’s warning about this. If you’ve got a thin skin or think you aren’t easily offended, this isn’t for you. You need to be unoffendable (is that a word?). By anything. Or you really need to be in tune with what Gilliam is trying to do. Or be a fan of the book that this is based on.

Yes, there is drug use shown on screen. Death is dealt with in a non-conventional way. Some of the sexuality dealt with made me squirm a bit.

So count yourself warned.

i dont know, maybe it was the failure of man from la mancha, but terry gilliam has failed to impress me with his last two outings. i had more hope for this one that brother grimm (matt dahmon), but..i dont know. i hated the characters, they seemed like ridiculous caricatures of real people, the accents became the most annoying. they just seemed fake.

frankly, i had my eyebrow raised from terry’s timid introduction. i thought it was pretentious and unnecessary. if a director feels it is necessary to prologue his film, then perhaps they shouldnt have made it the way they did. i dont see todd solondz prefacing any of his films, and i found them much more unsettling and disturbing than this film, mainly because the characters seemed more genuine.

visually, yes, it was interesting and often quite beautiful, but not terribly imaginative, considering gilliam’s other works.

all in all, a strange gamble, an attempt to make a shocking piece of film that ends up feeling lifeless and contrived. the only saving grace of this film is the actress playing jeliza-rose, without her this film would have been unwatchable. as it is, it skirts that status solely out of curiosity.

This film is amazing! Beautifully shot, beautifully acted but deeply disturbing. The subject matter is horrific at times but the childlike innocent tone is spot on, which keeps the nasty stuff in context and prevents it from being gratuitous. Think big fish meets alice in wonderland meets psycho.

I’m not sure what else to say, it was interesting, and a bit frightful, and it certainly made you think.

although i’m not entirely certain the child was as innocent as they would have you believe. . . not in all ways. . . I thought she was pretty manipulative and sly.

it was interesting, and I would probably watch it again because it is worth some probing on the symbolism and meaning

I just couldn’t get into it, it was way boring. I didn’t even finish it, I just couldn’t do it. I was so bored and couldn’t help but search for something else to do.

I’m still trying to figure out what the point to it was. It feels pretentiously different, and I don’t like that.

The only good thing about it was the cute little girl. Other than that, this movie has nothing going for it.