Review of Ondine (2010) by Nick E — 30 May 2010

A beautifully directed mixture of fairytale and reality.The story is simple enough, maybe even a little bland, but sharp scripting alongside great performances from everyone involved help give it a lot of depth.

Alison Barry and Colin Farrell stand out particularly and their performances help provide a lot of the film's charm. I was also impressed with how the director manages to interweave the fairytale and real aspects of the story so your never sat there thinking 'yeah right, like that would happen!' There is always just enough mystery so that you never exactly work out the ending until it happens.

Some of the directions and decisions that the main characters make don't sometimes seem that logical but the depth and background given to each character helps support their reasoning so nothing stands out as unbelievable.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more of some of the minor characters as well as more interaction with overall village life in general. Some of the time that could have been used for this did seem to be taken up by Alicja Bachleda-Curus swimming about in her knickers, but seeing as a main part of the story is establishing her as a beautiful and elegant fey creature I'm sure it can be forgiven ;) It would also have been nice to see some panoramic shots of the beautiful Irish coast, but the scenery that is shown still holds up the impact well enough.

Perhaps one of the main strengths of the movie that is not immediately noticed is its soundtrack. Inspired use of melodic and otherworldly pieces, such as by Sigur Ros, the music increases the impact of the film but manages to do so in a fairly subtle way.

The one exception is the selkie song which is enchanting at the start of the film but when its revealed exactly what it is, you might feel a little let down. The film is still definitely worth a look though.