Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Ondine Blu-ray Movie Review

A whale of a tale…

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 13, 2010

Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan clearly has a thing for what might be called “alternative” romances. In both The Crying Game and Breakfast on Pluto he follows transgendered individuals trying to find love during Ireland’s IRA “troubles.” The Miracle deals in incest, and Mona Lisa has a just-out-of-jail thug falling in unrequited love with a lesbian prostitute. Even Interview with the Vampire—if only in sub-text—has its share of homoerotic tension. For his latest film, the dreamy, watery drama Ondine, Jordan borrows from Irish mythology to create a fairytale for adults, a love story about a mere mortal man and a woman who may or may not be a mermaid. It’s a whale of a tale—Jordan tantalizingly dangles the is she or isn’t she bait in front of us until the end—and it works, despite a tendency toward melodrama. In fact, the film itself is like a siren; you know you’re heading straight toward the narrative rocks in the story’s craggy final act, but there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in succumbing to the movie’s enchantment.

...she came from the water...

The film’s protagonist is Syracuse (Colin Farrell), a.k.a. “Circus,” an Irish fisherman and former alcoholic who, despite being sober for two years and seven months, can’t quite escape his reputation as the village clown. He has the quiet introspection of a man embarrassed of his past, and he lives in solitude outside town in a seaside shanty, a caravan left to him by his Gypsy mother. Syracuse is on the outs with ex-wife, a sallow pub-crawler played with dead-eyed realism by Dervla Kirwan, but he takes good care of his daughter Annie (Alison Barrie), a wee precocious girl confined to a wheelchair and awaiting a kidney transplant. The film wastes no time introducing its central mystery. In the opening scene, Syracuse hauls up a nearly drowned woman (Polish actress Alicja Bachleda) in his fishing nets. She has no recollection of who she is or where she comes from—or maybe she just doesn’t want to tell—but she says that Syracuse can call her Ondine, which means, “she came from the sea.” The villagers are perplexed by Circus’ so- called “water baby,” and so is Syracuse himself—her singing seems to lure crustaceans into his usually barren lobster traps—but young Annie is convinced that Ondine is a selkie, a kind of Irish mermaid that looks like a seal but can remove its coat to become temporarily human.

It goes without saying that Syracuse falls in love with this woman from the water—she is, after all, devastatingly beautiful—and for the first time in a long time he feels positive about life. Beneath the newfound optimism, though, is the underlying worry that Ondine may, in fact, be too good to be true. When he goes to visit the village priest, played by Neil Jordan mainstay Stephen Rea, he confesses, “She brings me luck and I don’t know why. I’m afraid father, because I’m beginning to hope.” Selkies, legend has it, can grant a single wish, and Syracuse wants nothing more than for the doctors to find his daughter a suitable donor kidney. It’s no spoiler to say that they eventually do —and Ondine seems to grant Syracuse’s wish—but the transplant kidney comes with an unexpected human cost. Is it coincidence, or does Ondine hold a tide-like sway over fate? Could she actually be the mythic being she seems to be, or is it all a devastating ruse? Neil Jordan knows, but he’s not telling—at least, not until the film’s game-changing last act. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the film goes from being a quiet, character- driven mystery to a gritty dead-of-night thriller in the span of a few minutes. You won’t know what hit you, and depending on whether you’re a stern naturalist or a doe-eyed romantic, you’ll either love it or hate it. As if trying to please both audiences, Jordan somewhat ineffectively supplies the film with both a realistic dénouement and a fairytale happy ending.

Nonetheless, I took the bait and Ondine had me hooked from its first frames. Without the vaguely supernatural element, the film would be little more than a hard-luck melodrama—complete with an Irish drunk, a self-destructive ex-wife, and yes, a little girl in a wheelchair who needs daily dialysis—but the presence of the selkie mystery gives Ondine a potent ambiguity, a sense of magic encroaching upon the real world. It helps that the entire production—the cinematography, the sound design, the acting—is lush and involving. This is a sensual film in all senses of the world; you can taste the saltwater fog that hovers in the harbor, feel the moss and damp stones beneath the characters’ feet. And with the presence of wet skin, soaked-through skin-tight summer dresses, and the fire-starting chemistry of Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda—who are currently an item— Ondine is undeniably sexy. Bachleda is alluring and alien—we completely believe she could have oceanic origins—and Farrell shows a grounded sensitivity that’s increasingly becoming part of his on-screen persona. Far from the hard-drinking, expletive-spewing Hollywood bad boy of yore, Farrell has transformed into a mature and surprisingly versatile actor, as evidenced by his recent roles in Crazy Heart and In Bruges. In interviews, he’s attributed this turnaround to his real-life role as the father of a special-needs child, so the vulnerability and love that he shows as Syracuse seems completely organic.

The last few lines of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” seem to fit Ondine perfectly, as the film is an absolute dream until the jarring realism of the last act’s plot twist: “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” Try not to read too much into that.

Ondine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Magnolia Home Entertainment brings Ondine to Blu-ray with a striking 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, framed in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Of course, the real credit goes to esteemed cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who's perhaps best known for shooting all of director Wong Kar-Wai's films between Days of Being Wild and 2046. Doyle settles on a lush, wet, appropriately dreamy color palette here, a mix of misty grays, overcast blues, and of course, the vivid greens that give The Emerald Isle its name. Without using any CGI or other visual trickery, he certainly captures the film's intended fairytale mood. There are some blown highlights at times, and darker scenes are often cloaked in crushing black shadows, but this seems intentional, in no way a defect of the transfer. The image may not be razor sharp, but it has clarity where it counts—close-ups display fine facial texture and the loose weft of Syracuse's fisherman's sweater really pops in high definition. The grain structure is fine, and I didn't spot any overt edge enhancement. There are a few minor video issues, though, none of which present any real distractions. You'll notice some slight banding in a few of the underwater shots, and noise spikes a bit during night scenes. Otherwise, the picture is as brisk and clean as a cold Irish morning.

Ondine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Presented with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, Ondine is a great example of a mostly quiet film that nonetheless uses its subtle sound design to strong effect. The loudest, most audio-intensive scene is a car crash that rends metal and sends glass spraying through the soundfield; otherwise, this track relies almost solely on moody ambience. And this is evident from the very first scene—where the sounds of lapping waves, soft wind, and distant gulls fill every audio channel, effectively putting us right on Syracuse's fishing boat. The sonic sense of place keeps up throughout the film. Furthering the dreamy, sometimes somnambulant vibe is an atmospheric guitar and piano score, a prominently featured Sigur Ros song, and Alicja Bachleda's voice, which lilts over the sounds of the rolling ocean. All of this is crisp, clean, well mixed, and dynamically sound. Likewise, the dialogue is clear, although you may need the subtitles to fully understand the sometimes-thick Irish brogue.

Ondine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Making Ondine (SD, 9:38)
A short, fairly standard making-of featurette, but well worth watching.

HDNet: A Look at Ondine (1080i, 4:40)
A typical HDNet promo, featuring clips from the film, a brief synopsis, and quick interviews with Colin Ferrel, Alicja Bachleda, and director Neil Jordan.

Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:05)
Also From Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 8:36)
Includes trailers for The Extra Man, I Am Love, The Oxford Murders, and Centurion, along with a promo for HDNet.

BD-Live Functionality

Ondine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though I would've liked to see the film's last act go in another direction, it's easy to get caught in Ondine's net. This is a rare picture—a believable fairytale for adults, beautifully shot and acted—and it's probably director Neil Jordan's best film since 1999's The End of the Affair. The disc from Magnolia Home Entertainment looks and sounds lovely, and through there aren't many special features to speak of, this kind of film stands on its own. If you're a fan of dreamy mysteries or, well, a dreamy Colin Farrell—who's great here—Ondine is a solid purchase. For those on the fence, the film is at least a good rainy evening rental.