Ondine
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Director: Neil Jordan
Writer: Neil Jordan
Stars: Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda and Dervla Kirwan
Syracuse's first line in the movie: "Anybody out there? I need a little help."
Neil Jordan is a master debater when it comes to the subject at hand ("Breakfast on Pluto", "Interview with The Vampire") and he demonstrates his experience numerous times. The story comes in fractures, analyzing the troublesome past of Syracuse and his little daughter Annie, who is the unbeaten spirit of the movie and the actual catalyst of the plot by helping her father realize that something mystical has crossed his path.
The melancholic palette of colors manages to squeeze this tale of hope and promise into a moody little Irish off-coast village, noir prose and rugged characters. It is a real pleasure to watch as the movie delves deeper in wide shot poetic motion and misty tones.
Lurking though, underneath the dark Irish sea, the earthbound epilogue shatters the fragile nature of Christopher Doyle's hypnotizing cinematography. It violently drags you back to reality with no excuse other than the need to relief from the heavy burden of categorizing it as a mythical story and with no underlying implication of having an actual impact on said realism. The movie traps itself within its own net and no new perspective or unexplained question will get it onshore.
A sign of breathing in a time where fish won't follow maritime songs. This is a fairytale for grownups and as we all know, grownups can't afford fairytales.I am glad that Neil Jordan seems to be convinced otherwise.
