Review of Ondine (2010) by Terri N — 13 Jul 2010

"Interesting, dark, thoughtful and melancholic...".

Ondine, produced by Neil Jordan, is a story about a fisherman by the name of Syracuse (Colin Farrell) who one day fishes from the sea a beautiful "woman" (Alicja Bachleda) who apparently lost her memory but keeps a more. She wants to be called Ondine since Ondine is "the one who came out from the waters first". The chemistry between Syracuse and Ondine exist and you witness a surprisingly true story of love between these 2 characters. In his journey to understand her he realizes she is nothing but the selkie (half-human half-seal who loves to sing) the locals knew from the story about "the fisherman and the girl in the net". Annie, a girl who suffers from a kidney failure disease, is Syracuse daughter and she keeps a strong balance between his father and Ondine but things get interesting when a special villain infiltrates in the story who tries to deceive and destroy all the hope that surrounds these two lovers. The story gets deeper and deeper especially into the second part of the movie where Syracuse is frightened that Ondine will haunt him forever and then the emotional conflicts begin. Other than that the ending contains twists that make the fairytale seem ... real in a real world.

The story is beautiful but it has it's points where you could skip like about 2-3 mins because nothing really happens or the dialogue is poor written but still that doesn't change the fact that the movie might get interesting once you're going through it. I never read the fairytale nor I saw other adaptations of Ondine but this one made it clear for me that this is a great movie to watch in a lazy afternoon all alone especially if you're going through melancholic times.

Like I said the acting was well mostly because the characters are written well and the chemistry exists between each pair though the Vladic (the villain) was kind of lame. The movie has a surprisingly good cinematography and the soundtrack fits the weird-fantasy atmosphere. I don't recommend this movie to everyone because it's not a movie for everyone simply because some won't understand it or some will bash it considering it boring or slow-paced but if you're into love tales or journeys into thoughtful worlds then this is the movie for you.

Storyline: 7,5/10.

Acting: 7/10.

Art Direction: 6/10.

Cinematography: 7/10.

Score: 6,5/10.

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Overall: 6,8.