I was drawn to this film because it stars Colin Farrell.
I am a Colin Farrell fanboy of sorts, and will watch any-
thing he's in because he's so consistently good in a wide
range of roles. What I didn't notice until the credits
started rolling is that it's written and directed by Neil
Jordan ("Mona Lisa," "The Crying Game," "Michael Collins,"
and the upcoming TV series "The Borgias"). Cool, thought
I when I saw his name, but then I thought, "Oh shit...this
is probably going to be a heavy movie, and I was in the
mood for a light one." I could not have been more wrong.
This is a light one. Yeah, there are a few tads of reality
thrown in, like Colin Farrell's ex-alcoholic fisherman
character's daughter having kidney failure and unable to
find a transplant donor. And there's the reality of being
a divorced recovering drunk in a fishing town in Ireland,
where the only relief from the tedium is the local pub.
But this is background stuff, used as a screen against
which to show a very different kind of movie, a fantasy
about what things could be as opposed to what they are.
One day at sea, Colin Farrell's character is reeling in his
nets and finds a girl in them. At first he thinks she's dead,
but then she comes to life. She the most beautiful woman he
has ever seen. And she says that she doesn't know who she
is or what her name is. She doesn't want to go to a hospital,
and doesn't even want to see any other humans...only him. So
he allows her to live in his Mother's old house while wait-
ing for her to become less mysterious. Instead, she becomes
even more mysterious, enough that both he and his daughter
start to actually believe that she's a Selkie, a kind of
Scottish mermaid.
Whether she is or not is not really the crux of the movie.
It's the chemistry between Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda,
one of the most beautiful and talented new actresses I've
seen in quite some time. And the chemistry between both
of them and Alison Barry as the daughter.
"Ondine" is a very sweet, uplifting mythic fantasy romance,
the last thing you might expect from either Colin Farrell or
Neil Jordan. You'll be singing the Selkie's song long after
seeing it. I watched it twice in two days, because I could
not get that song out of my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80HzX8UGEKM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235796/
