Excellent, a Must See

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The story of Ondine is really a fairytale for adults. The story of a man who has lost all hope and his daughter who still believes in fairy tales. They meet a strange girl who calls herself Ondine and she gives the man a reason to hope again. Colin Farrell exhibits does an extremely good job of acting his character and adds the splash of realism to the film and keeps it from really going over the top. The film does a good job of keeping itself grounded, but also giving off a meaning to take home with you. I'd recommend this movie for anyone who's looking for that childhood splash of fairytale and happy ending linked to realism.

Ondine was so disappointing primarily because I couldn't understand 90% of what was said due to the excessively strong accents. The strong accents may have been accurate, but most of the English speaking population aren't familiar with such strong accents.There were several great actors in Ondine, so I was really looking forward to watching it. Unfortunately, not being familiar with the "strongest" of Irish accents (and I'm part Irish) I just couldn't understand what many and especially Colin Farrell were saying. It sounded like mumbling.Today movies can easily be made for the general population and incorporate mechanisms to help facilitate the audience easily understanding the message. The subtitling in Avatar is a great example. They did everything possible to make the subtitling easy and quick to read. Many movies "don't care" if you can read the subtitles or see in the dark scene or understand what was said or not.My point is that it's LAZINESS on the part of the movie maker if they don't put any effort in broadening the appeal to the audience. In the case of Ondine, you can have a "strong" accent but still have it understandable by the general populous.

Ondine had so much going for it: Neil Jordan, Colin Farrell, Stephen Rea, the southwest coast of Ireland, the selkie myth, the complexity of modern Ireland. But the film was surprisingly poor. It starts off very promising, and that promise is a film that offers an interesting mix of fairy tale and realism. But the mix gets muddled about halfway through, and the last twenty minutes are ridiculously poor. The scenery is beautiful. Colin Farrell at his most handsome. The soundtrack is lovely. But the acting, across the board, is mediocre -- primarily, I think, because the screenplay just doesn't hold up. But I also think the little girl is weak, and woman who plays Ondine is just vacuous, not mysterious. I forced myself to watch it a second time, just in case I just came to it with false expectations, and found it to be worse the second time around. Once you know the ending, you can see that the earlier scenes don't add up: they were "tricks" that the film plays on you.

I like the movies directed by Neil Jordan, mainly because I enjoy his directing style, even though there were a few occasions in which I did not find the screenplays he worked with to be particularly interesting by themselves. But even in those exceptions (In Dreams and the remake of We're No Angels), I think that his particular sensibility, his efficient control over the actors and his precise vision could rescue the experience. I think that Ondine, his most recent film, is a very entertaining, honest and even touching romantic fantasy which fully displays Jordan's talent.The publicity of Ondine might evoke images of sirens, but Ondine is based on a different European legend, so do not expect to see actress Alicja Bachleda with an isinglass and a shell bikini. In fact, the balance between fantasy and reality is so well handled that it is impossible for the spectator to predict what route the movie will take, and that contributes to bring it a simultaneously mysterious and emotive tone, without falling into cloying routines, and without losing the ethereal atmosphere of a fairytale conjured by Jordan and the extraordinary cinematographer Christopher Doyle (by the way...Can someone explain to me why Doyle has never been nominated to the Oscar so far? After creating beautiful images for films like Hero, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Quiet American, The Limits of Control and Ondine, I think that the fact that he has not been recognized by the Academy is almost a crime).Anyway, the "magical" aspect of the movie is only the catalyst which detonates the family drama between the poor fisherman Syracuse, his cruel ex-wife Maura and their little daughter Annie, who is caught between her indifferent but stable mother and the father who truly loves her, even though he has not reached the necessary maturity to raise her yet. By the way, I think that Alison Barry steals the show as Annie, because she is absolutely credible and charming in that role. However, that does not mean that the adult cast makes a bad work. On the opposite, Colin Farrell brings another one of his intense performances, full of details and emotional deepness, and which proves his big talent. Bachleda might result a bit inexpressive for some people, but I think that the coldness she brings to her character is appropriate for bringing a mysterious aura to it, while insinuating its supernatural origin. And I would also like to mention the great Stephen Rea, Jordan's favorite actor, who is always worthy of being seen as any role, as short as it might be (gentle priest and confessor in this case).In conclusion, I liked Ondine very much, mainly for daring to be a modern fairytale seasoned by a raw dose of reality. It might not be perfect (I think there are a few forced details in the screenplay), but it definitely deserves a very enthusiastic recommendation for anyone who wants to see a fantasy which does not insult the spectator's intelligence, nor tries to sell us toys or a McDonald's Happy Meal.