5/10
Neil Jordan is a director who has had his share of the big time (The Crying Game, for example), but lately his mojo seems to have gone walkabout. Ondine is a film about a fisherman called Syracuse (Farrell), a sober alcoholic with a disabled daughter living with his still-drinking ex-, and a nickname (Circus) that he's trying to live down without much success. He's down on his luck, and there's no cavalry on the horizon, until he pulls his net out of the sea and finds a beautiful young woman inside. She doesn't want anyone to see her, and her mysterious appearance convinces Annie (Farrell's daughter) that she is a selkie; a seal woman with magical powers. So far, so Irish and pretty good. But there are problems. A precocious child is rarely appealing in a film, even (or especially) when she's in a wheelchair. The community is almost too Oirish for words, and could have frozen for the last 5 years. Farrell's banter with local priest Stephen Rea is good value, and Ondine (as the woman is called) has a mystery about her that is intriguing. But when the film switches from magic and romance to drama and thriller, the light goes, and we're left with a plot twist which baffling, improbable and just downright annoying.
What starts out as a charming, magical and engrossing story loses its way badly in the final third. Colin Farrell, complete with long hair, stubble and beetle eyebrows does his best to save it, but I was disappointed by the way the film was completed.
