Day 3 of the USA Film Festival, and star Alicja Bachleda captivates the audience with her grace and exotic accent. She quietly introduces the film, simply saying that it was magical to work on and that she hopes we enjoy. The film is Ondine, the latest by Oscar winning director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with a Vampire) and starring Collin Farrell in a remarkably quiet departure from his bad boy past.
Syracuse (Farrell) is a fisherman content to spend his time either on his boat or with his disabled and utterly charming young daughter Annie (the movie-stealing newcomer Alison Barry). When he discovers a beautiful woman (Bachleda) in his fishing nets, he thinks he has gone mad. The woman calls herself Ondine, meaning “she came from the water,” and has no recollection of where she came from. But Annie firmly believes something else: that Ondine is a selkie, an Irish mythological creature similar to a mermaid.
Syracuse and the viewing audience can’t help but fall hopelessly in love with Ondine, and the film becomes a whimsical fantasy grounded in real life. The music, provided by Sigur Ros, is entrancing and the gloomy Irish landscape sets a wonderful background for this fairy tale. That is, until the sloppy third act where the film turns fantasy to thriller, complete with druglords and guns.
Of course Ondine isn’t REALLY a selkie or a mermaid, but the tone of the film changes so drastically in the third act that audiences are left hanging. The film is so believable in its magical realism that as an audience, we buy into it wholeheartedly. Then when the druglords come onscreen and the violence begins, it’s like someone came and popped our fantastical bubble.
Ondine is anchored by its amazing actors, surreal score, and luminous landscape. Thankfully, at the end of the movie we get our fairy tale ending. As did Farrell and Bachleda, who met on the set and have been together ever since. (At the screening at the USA Film Festival, Bachleda shyly diverted any questions about her significant other.) Ondine has all of the elements necessary for an enchanting modern-day fairy tale, except the power to keep the audience under its spell.
Director: Neil Jordan
Notable Cast: Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda, Alison Barry, Stephen Rea,
Writer(s): Neil Jordan
