What a waste of my time!!!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Fiona (Alberta Watson) returns home to isolated Ironbound Island after her mother left her the family home. She brought her depressed daughter Claire (Julia Brendler) who suffered a devastating loss. They are greeted by Fiona's uncle Peat. Claire is pushed to deliver a package to bitter writer Celia (Lynn Redgrave). Celia tells Claire a story about the island's past when fish was plenty. Silly (Kirsten Dunst) was born on the fish cutting table. Her mother Rose was a mainlander and everybody is keeping the island lore from her. They suspect Silly to be the special one. On her death bed, Rose makes Silly promise her not to go into the water. Then one day, the fish disappears.It's a story within a story. The modern story has Lynn Redgrave anchoring it. She brings her professionalism and powerful acting. The story within the story has Kirsten Dunst doing some good work. The story has a poetic sadness. The production is a little too indie. It doesn't have the magic that the story requires. Writer/director Sheri Elwood doesn't have the compelling visual style and the movie does struggle with pacing. It's a fair movie about sadness and loss.

There's no question that the depiction of the culture is rich, the cinematography generally excellent and the acting more or less sound. While I agree with other comments about the vagaries of Dunst's accent and how nice it would have been to see more authentic and less Enyaesque music, there's no need to belabor that. But ...how in the heck is a young naval officer so stupid as to pitch a permanent tent fifty feet from the shoreline in Newfoundland? what exactly (if anything) is Claire "sacrificing" at the end to get the fish to come back? why does a poor village in the back-of-beyond just abandon the village church after suffering a modest fire, without just repairing it? why would a capable, experienced young woman such as Silly do nothing more than scream while James is drowning? Fishing villages have life-threatening situations all the time, and there is ample rope even on a small schooner to throw to a fellow no more than 15 yards from the boat.Why is Claire's mother so supremely stupid as to not figure out why dragging her daughter to Nowhere, NF, could possibly bore her? (Oh, and exactly where was the cell tower so she could use her cell phone, anyway?) There are just a few too many such flaws to sustain suspension of disbelief, and combined with plot elements of such subtlety -- is the doctor Silly's father, for instance? -- as to be impenetrable, it's not a movie I'd go out of my way to see again.5/10.

A young girl comes with her mother to her ancestral home on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia to escape the sudden death of her first love. She withdraws from the world around her until she crosses paths with an old hermit-like lady who tells her a tale of a great fishing village, an age-old viking curse and a lovelorn couple that faces Shakespearian tragedies. Parallels between her life and the tale open up her heart so she can mourn her love.Beautifully filmed this bittersweet lovestory is a bit of a tearjerker and ends a bit sourly. Good direction and heartfelt acting are abundant but the story is a bit of a downer. 8/10

One thing I really liked about this film was the old-fashioned story-telling feel it had. So many movies now-a-days are all about fast-paced roller coaster rides full of explosions and digital effects. This movie was the opposite of that. This movie did not change my life. It wasn't a must-rent. Although I appreciated the non-Hollywoodness of this, the story and characters were not nearly as in-depth and thoughtful as they could have been. The kind of film that relies on story and character instead of bang and zoom demands a level of depth and insight that was not fully realized here. This is all beside the point, but Kirsten Dunst's accent was terrible, and I laughed out loud when she smoked a pipe because it was obvious she had no idea how to even hold it properly.