Ondine

What a great real life fairy tail. I don’t think you can watch this without feeling joy and heartbreak. The ending is the best part. 😎

Ondine is a charming and engaging romantic tale that exists in a fuzzy boundary between real-life and imagination.There don't seem to be much in the way of special effects here. (If there was any digital post-processing done, it was done so well that I couldn't see it.) Very little raucous action. Not much in the way of hyper-dramatic Hollywood kitsch. No loonie hate propaganda. No childish foul language. No gratuitous nudity. It's just a happy story of love developing between a mysteriously magical woman and a fisherman in a setting that's commonplace to the few privilege to live in coastal fishing villages but quite exotic and fascinating to all the rest of us.The pacing is perfect; it kept me in the story throughout the entire film. All production values top-notch. Music unobtrusive, though in a few spots it confused me enough to nudge me out of the story for a moment.I don't understand the criticism about the lighting or color processing in the film The image looked great to me throughout the entire film. Perhaps it was just that the user's monitor needs to be adjusted or replaced. Or maybe... well... you know what Bilbo said to Frodo about his little chest of gold.Bit of a spoiler: Ondine starts out with hints that it will turn out to be a charming fairy tale, but in the end, the film offers an almost-plausible explanation of how the events in the story came to be. I said "almost" plausible because the real-life story still leaves a lot of coincidences, leaving the door open for the advertising's catch phrase: "The truth... is what you believe."I'm guessing that some of the folks who commenting on the film were disappointed that it didn't turn out to be a pure fairy tale, and were reacting to their expectations rather than to the quite accurate description in the movie blurb.I have to strongly disagree with the critical review that complains about the science behind the real-life explanation; the reviewer is misinformed. The annals of medicine are filled with incidents where people have survived immersion for extended period of time in hypothermic conditions. Metabolism slows down to the minimum required for survival. In those cases, there was no brain damage unless there is an embolism while depressurizing a deeply submerged victim. While all but quite mesomorphic human bodies will float in water initially, a body weighted down with clothing or becoming water-logged will sink after a short while. Eventually, a dead body will resurface for a time as microbes release gasses that buoy it up (and eventually sink again, but this bit of grue isn't applicable here). In cases of real drowning, there is very little water in the victim's lungs; the trachea will automatically close up to prevent inhalation of water. The body can, however, exhale all the air in the lungs and become less buoyant.On the other hand, we move back into the fairy tale when we have a naked (for all practical purposes here) human continuously exposed to the temperature of the sea around Ireland. Below 60 degrees F, one would not be comfortably paddling about under water in those conditions; the body would going hypothermic, unable to maintain its core body temperature; and the sea around Ireland rarely gets that warm.

I enjoyed the start of this movie and then disappointment....The little girl was precious......Then the fairy tale woke up into a world where people are mean and have no control over their vices.......I liked the movie, but it could have been so much better if only it would have kept to the dream !

Honestly, this is not really my type of movie but I wanted something a little different. Really blown away by it. The ending scene on the boat with the music was perfect.

I was looking for an interesting movie with cultural richness and emotional depth. Somehow they took potentially deep topics; legend, fantasy, love, addiction, death, starting over, immigration, handicap, health challenges, poverty, divorce and crime and made them shallow. I found myself not very engaged and could not really identify with any of the characters. The acting was so so and the script was silly at best. To be fair, I was looking for something like "The Secret of Roan Inish" ;not another crime mystery.

In this modern day world of computers, Facebook, Tweeters ,Etc. , Imagination is slowly becoming passe. Fantasy films are still being made with the CGI effect as a safety net but many of them have expunged the 'Once Upon A Time' otherworldly feeling one should experience becoming one with the tale. Writer/director Neil Jordan has resurrected the 'Once Upon A Time' once again by unleashing a modern day fairytale on a jaded film going audience. He did it once before with his excellent film 'THE COMPANY OF WOLVES' and now does it with 'ONDINE' the most beautiful, mesmerizing piece of cinema released this past year. The Irish countryside is far more breathtaking than a computerized backdrop. By combining myths with modern day alienation from human roots, Jordan spins a tale of a fisherman who is barely getting by in his small Irish town. Separated from his wife and father to a dying little girl, his paralysed existence is shattered when one day he catches a beautiful woman in his fishing net. While trying to separate the myth-(his little girl thinks the woman is a Selkie- a seal creature of Scottish legend) from reality, he hopelessly falls in love and cannot cope with the good fortune that comes his way. Naturally, a big bad wolf arrives to throw a wrench in the proceedings. Colin Farrell continues to show us what a wonderful thespian he truly is and Alicia Bacheleda is intoxicating as the strange woman. The scene stealer is Alison Barry as the little girl, Annie, who's presence is felt throughout the proceedings even when not on screen. There is nothing more shattering than a child supporting a parent based on the sheer courage and unwavering faith in the enormity of this love and gift that came from the sea. With breathtaking photography by Christopher Doyle and an ethereal music score combining traditional Irish ballads, 'ONDINE' is a jewel among the countless remakes and sequels being unleashed on the cinema going public. As one critic from the Minneapolis Star Tribune stated " ONDINE is so good that it hurts". I couldn't have said it better myself.

J'ai beaucoup aimé cette histoire mi- légende des Selkies mi- réalité! Un beau film, on se laisse porter ...c'est agréable .C'est très intéressant d'essayer de prendre connaissance de ces légendes et peut-être mieux découvrir l'âme des Irlandais et des gens de la mer.

Ok

Después de ver Byzantium, sentí curiosidad por la obra de este director y busqué mas películas. Es una historia fantástica

Not typical Neil Jordan in the sense of "Crying Game" or "In Dreams" but very enjoyable. Colin Farrell is at his best playing rumpled, slightly shifty, but loveable characters and he's great in this whimsical folksy tale which as always with Jordan isn't quite what it seems.

I love Colin Farrell and is a delightful offbeat movie with Colin at his best. Super