Ondine

Ondine is an Irish story told by native filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) about a poor fisherman (Colin Farrell) who on one typical day ends up catching a beautiful woman in his net. To his and our surprise the woman is still alive and so he takes her back to his house to help nurse her back to health. Once there mysterious things begin to happen as he slowly is convinced that this woman Ondine is nothing but good luck to him as his catch begins to increase drastically. Of course a romance ensues and Farrell's sick little daughter begins to look at Ondine as a motherly figure in her life even though all the while she is convinced that she is something not all entirely human, like a mermaid. Violent drama enters into the picture when the appearence of sinister men come looking for Ondine. Farrell has at this point gone back and forth with the notion of including her in his life and with the confrontation of dangerous men is forced to choose if she is something worth fighting for.
The film is filled with gorgeous looking images of the cold Irish coastline that help give all the characters a real lived inn feeling and Neil Jordan seems to know his way around a camera. He seems to favor dark shadows over bursts of light, at least for this film. The end result is moderately engaging story thanks to an honest performance by Colin Farrell who at this stage in his life seems to be making fascinating career choices. 

C+

2010