Ondine
Ondine (2009), directed and written by Neil Jordan, was shot in the coastal town of Castletownbere, Ireland. It is a seaside Irish romantic escape into a fairy tale, set in the present day. The story sweeps us into said fairy tale about a selkie, an old Irish folklore about a mythical character, male or female, who can change from a seal to human form on land. Once in their human form, they are very attractive and desirable. They may fall in love or even marry and have children with the human they encounter, but their true self will always long for the sea. They will eventually leave their human life and all who love them to return to the sea that pulls at their hearts daily. Or so the story goes.
The fairy tale is told through the eyes of 3 characters, the romantic, dashing hero, Syracuse (Colin Farrell), the damsel in distress, Ondine (Alicja Bachleda), and the wide eyed child who believes, Syracuse's 12 year old daughter, Annie (Alison Barry).
In the opening of the movie, we meet Syracuse, a fisherman, who is pulling in the catch of the day on his boat from his nets. One net holds something he was never expecting...a beautiful woman! Ondine, barely holding on to life. He rushes to retrieve her from the net, once he realizes she might actually be alive.
Once revived, Ondine's concerns are threefold, not to be seen, trying to gain her perspective on where she is and wondering how she is alive. Syracuse asks her where she came from and how she arrived in his net, but she will not divulge her secrets, of which she apparently has many. He wants to take her to a hospital, but she refuses. She continually insists, "I cannot be seen by anyone!" So, he resolves to help her. The fairy tale begins to unfold.
Syracuse takes Ondine to the house where his mother, a lifetime loner and recluse, used to live overlooking the sea. He tells her it is a place where no one will find her Losing his mother was hard for him, which is probably why he keeps her house, but he cannot bear to live there himself. So, Ondine can make this her home. This also shows us that Syracuse is an accepting, loyal, generous and loving individual who Ondine sees as someone she can trust with her very life.
As the story progresses, we meet Syracuse's daughter, Annie. He has to leave Ondine to rush back to make it in time to take Annie to the doctor's office for her dialysis. Annie is tied to a wheelchair as a result of her illness, so she has to be carried from place to place.
We meet Annie's mother, Syracuse's ex-wife, Maura, (Dervla Kirwan), who is a bitter alcoholic that berates her ex- husband while living with her very married boyfriend, Alex (Tony Curran). She calls Syracuse a clown and circus then rides him for always being late and never having enough money to pay for anything for his daughter. Yet, we get the idea that Syracuse, who is an alcoholic in recovery, gives his ex all he can. She and the boyfriend drink the money away, mired in their addiction. We learn later that Syracuse has sobered up, so that his daughter has one responsible parent. He is also trying to gain custody of his child to get her out of her current situation.
While supporting his daughter at dialysis, Annie asks Syracuse to tell her a story. He proceeds to tell the tale of pulling a mermaid like creature from the sea with his net and how she sings to the creatures in the water. His well read daughter connects the dots between his story and the Irish childhood fairy tales she has learned. She deems he is telling her the tale of a selkie. She cannot decipher if his story is half truth or half fairy tale, which spawns her curiosity to find out.
At the end of the dialysis, the nurse takes her to the new motorize wheelchair the insurance has provided for her. Now his curious, mischievous daughter, with a mother who doesn't really keep an eye on her, is mobile and determined to find out about the mysterious selkie woman her dad tells her about. Is she real or just a story her father has created in his mind?
We also see a dark character enter the picture, Vladic (Emil Hostina), who seems to be looking for Ondine relentlessly. Yet, he will not approach her in the open or a crowd. Very mysterious, but we get the feeling he is ominously dangerous.
We are taken along a ride of fantasy mixed with mystery. You are never quite sure what is real and what is not. The story weaves in and out until even Syracuse is not sure, if what he is witnessing is real. He knows he can see and touch Ondine, but is she just a figment of his imagination that he needs to believe exists? Is the mysterious man following her even real or the effects of his past addiction on his brain? He even speaks to his local priest (Stephen Rea), whom Syracuse sees as his addiction counselor/sponsor of a sort, to help him verify, if he is just imagining Ondine or if she is real.
Ondine is a surreal, magical story that takes you from fiction to reality and then back again. But at its heart, it is a story about love and trust, between ex's, a father and a daughter, a priest and his friend and finally between Ondine and Syracuse. Do these two need each other more than they realize? Watch the movie to find out. You will not be disappointed! And you will enjoy a beautiful cultural Irish story passed down through time while you do.
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