The Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2010: Opening Night

Posted on Friday February 19, 2010, 10:40 by Sam Toy in Under The Radar

I landed in Dublin this afternoon to crisp, cool conditions – albeit one up on London for at least having intermittent blue sky and patches of sunshine - which helped get the Jameson DIFF (a good one for fans of acronyms) off to an enthusiastic start. The opening night film was Neil Jordan’s latest, Ondine, which played to a full house as excited as you would expect to see a film shot entirely just down the road (I noticed several people around me excitedly nudge their partners/family members when a certain extra made a fleeting appearance). After the introductory speeches and a tribute to late local festival hero and champion of Irish cinema Michael Dwyer, Jordan and his star Colin Farrell introduced their co-stars and the film.

Selkies, the seal people of Celtic folklore, seem to have an instant and obvious appeal for the family film – off the top of my head I can think of at least two other solid films within the genre to feature these mythological creatures: John Sayles’ superior The Secret Of Roan Inish (notable for Haskell Wexler’s incredible cinematography, shot almost entirely during the magic hour on Ireland’s northwest coast), and an Australian effort, Selkie. They provide all of the fantastical wonder for an all ages audience (with a local flavour to boot), without having to resort to mermaids. So too, Neil Jordan’s Ondine can be added to the list, and with a twist on the idea.
We’re following Syraceuse (Farrell), a down-on-his-luck fisherman and recovering alcoholic, who pulls up his trawling net one day to find there’s a beautiful girl in it. He resuscitates her, but she doesn’t want to go to a hospital – doesn’t even want to been seen by anyone but him. She offers the name Ondine (and is played by the extraordinarily beautiful Alicja Bachleda-Curus). It’s not long though, before Syraceuse’s renal-impaired daughter (newcomer Alison Barry in a wholly endearing performance) discovers Ondine, and immediately identifies her as a selkie – a theory supported by the fact that when the stranger sings on Syraceuse’s boat, he suddenly starts bringing in loads of fish.

And so begins Jordan’s exploration of our relationship with myth and coincidence – why we are compelled to contextualise odd events and radical turns of fortune (or misfortune) to make them more understandable. Which is a very tough line for a storyteller to walk, and Jordan here isn’t always successful, but has nonetheless created an enjoyable film from his attempt.

It’s well cast – the three leads work well together, and strong support is provided by the likes of Dervla Kirwan, Tony Curran, and Jordan’s stalwart collaborator Stephen Rea (who shares many of the film’s best scenes with Farrell). It moves along nicely for a while, but – and I’m trying to be as specific as I can whilst remaining spoiler-free – there’s a point (which Jordan crosses more than once) where interesting coincidence gives way to simple contrivance. And that’s a shame, because this slight over-egging of the screenplay makes Ondine a good family film instead of a great one.

That aside, there’s a nice, unusual tone to the film. Yes, we’re in that traditional mythic-creature-torn-between-two-worlds family film, but there’s also a determined realism and edginess to the story – bad things do happen to the characters, something which I found curiously refreshing in a nearly-all-ages movie. Christopher Doyle’s muted cinematography, and the wonderful score (which I’m dying to tell you about, but can’t, due to an ingenious plot point hinging on it – someone will probably give it away, but it won’t be me!) are also solid reasons to give this a try. Ondine left the audience with a positive buzz, one which I believe went beyond locals seeing themselves up on screen. Not bad for a movie which counts among its prime directives as being shot entirely within five minutes from the director’s house, and an appealing start to the festival.