Despite the admiration of connoisseurs, writer-director-editor John Sayles has remained shamefully underappreciated and underfinanced as a younger generation of American independent pretenders have muscled in on his preeminence in the field of hip integrity. This gentle tale, made in 1993, deserves a mainstream family audience but doubtless will prove a very hard sell since it eschews the razzle-dazzle and brash cuteness that thrive at the box office.
Young Irish girl Fiona (Courtney) has become sad and wan in the poor city home to which her widowed father and brothers have been reduced. Sent to live with her grandparents on the coast, she gets to know her relatives - notably her "touched" cousin (Lynch) - and seizes an opportunity to explore the deserted Island Of The Seals from which her family and the other villagers emigrated. Fiona's baby brother disappeared the day the island was abandoned and local legend has it that he was taken by the Selkies (creatures of Celtic myth who can transform from seal to human). And there is a dewy-eyed seal who seems to be trying to tell her something...
Stories of children reared by animals have their own fascination, but this has lots of other resonances. Without loosening his grip on reality, Sayles explores people's roots and the power of myth. Grandfather (Mick Lally) keeps family history alive by marvellous storytelling, and Lynch's "dark one", Tadhg, casts a spell with his visions "between air and water".
Added attractions are the splendours of Ireland's west coast, a terrific cast and the seals, natural born performers. Not so much a children's film as an adult film in which the children and animals are graceful presences, this is a charming, genuinely moving gem.