#Conversations with god movie movie#
#Conversations with god movie tv#

McTeer has a dazzling stage resume, but you'd never know it from her fumbling performance. Janet McTeer, an Oscar nominee for 'Tumbleweeds,' appears briefly as Noah's hometown honey, whom he deserted when he fled the countryside for the bright lights. You cringe when she's called upon to kiss a grown man.

#Conversations with god movie tv#

Most of the rambling dialogue is left to poor 10-year-old Ferland, who's been in commercials and on TV since she was 2 but isn't much of a big screen presence. It makes you wonder what Bridges was smoking when he read the script and agreed to submit to these indignities.Īt least his character's early demise allows him to stop uttering any more of the unintelligible script by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni, who seem to be channeling Sam Shepard but with none of his wit.

He looks like Anthony Perkins disguised as mommy dearest in 'Psycho.'Ī neighbor who fancies herself a mortician removes his innards, and his corpse for some reason takes on a bronze sheen. Jeliza-Rose props Daddy up and puts a blowsy wig over his hair. But Bridges doesn't get to exit from 'Tideland' that easily. Slipping them over her hands like puppets, she has them converse in language shocking considering it's coming out of a child's mouth.Ī third of the way into this muddled mess, Noah goes on what he calls a 'little vacation' in his easy chair and never wakes up. Jeliza-Rose's playmates are the dismembered heads of her dolls. That's when everything becomes really bizarre. When Mom dies of an overdose, Noah packs up his drug paraphernalia and daughter and heads for his family's isolated farm in the country. She attends to her parents' habit like a scrub nurse. Gilliam throws in arty allusions to 'Alice in Wonderland' to indicate how far down a rabbit hole the girl has fallen. Born a junkie baby, Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) is now on the cusp of adolescence. Jeff Bridges plays a deranged variation of the Dude, a druggie named Noah who's a dreadful rock 'n' roll musician - it's painful to listen to him play, all duded up in leather - and an even worse father. At least let's hope nothing more dreadful is foisted upon us. It immediately shoots to the top of the list of the year's worst movies. His latest effort is pointless and an excruciating bore. Gilliam goes on to say that some of you will love it, referring presumably to family members and fans willing to cut the auteur behind 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and 'Brazil' some slack.

Terry Gilliam gets one thing right about 'Tideland.' It opens with the director looking straight into the camera and acknowledging that many of you aren't going to like his picture or know what to make of it. Starring Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland and Janet McTeer. God sounds a lot like the guy who does voice-overs for Jack in those funny Jack in the Box commercials, which some viewers may find blasphemous. Advisory: This film contains some adult themes. If God did start speaking to some random homeless guy, wouldn't he come up with some better material?

#Conversations with god movie movie#

But for those who don't come in as fans of Walsch's work, the movie ends up being very difficult to buy. Next to Walsch's material, Mitch Albom's 'Tuesdays With Morrie' looks like Kafka. 'Conversations With God' is certainly uplifting. 'I want for you what you want for you, nothing more, nothing less.' 'You think you are below me, when in truth we are all one,' says a humorless God, who really needs to track down George Burns for some coaching on his delivery.

But everything goes downhill quickly once God shows up, helping the poor wretch out of the mire by giving him a job as a ghostwriter. While the second act is bathed in piano score and the obvious plot turns of a Lifetime channel movie, many of Neale's trials are moving, such as his difficult decision to eat refuse from a Dumpster. Flash back five years, when the lost soul crashes his car, loses his job and ends up in a homeless encampment.Ĭzerny does what he can with the character. (The Big Guy doesn't get any royalties, although if you believe this movie, it's not about the money anyway.) The story begins with a well-groomed Neale (Henry Czerny) talking to a crowd of mostly dedicated readers. 'Conversations' is based on the books of Walsch, who has become a sensation for his uplifting prose. But for the rest of us, the movie appears to be a contrived, poorly produced attempt to sell more of the author's books - with the last 15 minutes needing only a Ron Popeil appearance to qualify as an infomercial for his publisher. At Bay Area theaters.)Ĭoming to theaters disguised as a real movie, 'Conversations With God' instead looks and sounds like a couple of lost episodes of TV's 'Highway to Heaven' - minus the grumpy comedic touches of Victor French.įans of Neale Donald Walsch and Christian cinema in general may find inspiration in the story of a flawed man who hits rock bottom and quite literally starts taking dictation from his Maker. Bruce Page, Vilma Silva and Michael Goorjian.