Neil Jordan’s ‘Ondine’ Is An Enchanting Fairytale With Another Terrific Comeback Performance For Colin Farrell [TIFF Review]

Beginning with a simple story about a fisherman (Colin Farrell) who comes across a mysterious beautiful woman who may or may not be a sea nymph (fetching Polish actress Alicja Bachleda), Neil Jordan‘s “Ondine,” doesn’t hide the fact that it’s essentially an full-blown fairytale.

Besides that basic info and the fact that Sigur Rós‘ keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson was composing the score, we didn’t know much else, but as we’ve said countless times, there’s something to be said about going into a movie mostly blind.

And an outright, captivating fairytale it is — at least for much of the film — Jordan’s feature made in Ireland because of the U.S. writers strike takes him back to his Irish roots and its a winning fit for this largely enchanting and wondrous film.

An excellent Colin Farrell stars as Syracuse, a recovering alcoholic and fisherman forever known, much to his chagrin, as “Circus” due to his unforgettable clownish ways as the boorish, unreliable town drunk. Even as a changed man, sober for a year and a half, the stain of his actions and behavior follow him wherever he goes so he retreats to a quiet existence on a trawling fishing boat and taking care of his daughter Annie, who is suffering from kidney failure (a wonderfully precocious Alison Barry who is an endearing delight in the picture).

Circus’ biggest obstacle is his ex-wife Maura (Dervla Kirwa) who still has custody of their child despite being an irresponsible drunk. Her loafing, Scottish boyfriend is no walk in the park either, but Circus has cleaned himself up for the sake of his daughter. He also tries to pay his penance in church, going to confession once a week and confessing his sins to the local priest (longtime Jordan-player Stephen Rea).

And then once upon a time — “Ondine” tries to embrace its storybook like qualities — Circus’ life is transformed when he catches a mysterious woman in his fishing net. She seems drowned, but then coughs up back to life with his assistance, not knowing who she is and how she got there. The beautiful, but amnesiac woman — who eventually dubs herself Ondine — insists on not being seen or taken to a hospital and Circus reluctantly agrees and take her to his deceased and hermetic mother’s seashore house away from prying eyes in the interim before he figures out that to do with her.

Though he can’t tell anyone his discovery, in telling his daughter a bedtime story he begins to tell the wheelchair-bound girl about the sea lass caught in a fisherman’s net. The preternaturally intelligent and
curious little girl soon begins to hunger for more, visiting the library and becoming an expert in the legend of the Selkie — a seal-like sea nymph found in Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish mythology that involves a female mermaid-esque creature who can take a landsman as a mate only if she has no sea husband. A 7-year-stay on land and a sea fur coat necessary to make the trip back into the ocean is also part of the folkore.

The curiouser and curiouser Annie soon begins to sniff around and discovers Ondine to not just be a fabrication of her father’s imagination, but a real-life woman living in her grandmother’s house. The two bond and Circus quickly falls under her bewitching spell — she sings incantations at sea (revealed to be Sigur Rós’ “All Alright”) which seemingly sway the sea and bring lobster, salmon and good fortune to the fisherman’s mediocre year.

A dreamy, bittersweetly romantic picture — with some beautifully raw photography from the great Christopher Doyle and a superbly atmospheric and elegiac score provided by the aforementioned Icelandic composer — conflicts arise in the magically transporting film via Annie’s drunken mother and the man tracking down Ondine in the Irish fishing town, ostensibly her Selkie sea husband.

In the last act, the dream-like bubble of the fanciful and starry-eyed picture bursts by going in a direction that we can’t spoil, but it an a way it probably had to go in order to strike balance out the gorgeously wrought fable, not to mention resolution for the story. It’s realistic and somewhat disappointing— and some might find it a dealbreaker, but the lovely and tender film still enchanted and swayed our cynical heart and there’s something to be said about that. Ultimately imperfect, but very memorable and lasting as far as we were concerned. [B+]

And note, back in September 2008, international sales of “Ondine” was supposed to be handled by Paramount Vantage, but obviously that indie mini-major doesn’t exist. So as far as we know, the film has yet to find any major distribution, but hopefully that changes soon.