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Ondine (2009)

tomatometer

70

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 94
Fresh: 66 | Rotten: 28

Flawed but charming, Ondine reaffirms writer-director Neil Jordan's gift for myth, magic, and wonder.

67

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 8

Flawed but charming, Ondine reaffirms writer-director Neil Jordan's gift for myth, magic, and wonder.

audience

56

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 19,710

My Rating

Movie Info

A man makes a startling discovery that may or may not be magical in this drama from writer and director Neil Jordan. Syracuse (Colin Farrell) is a fisherman who lives in a small town on the Southern coast of Ireland. Syracuse is an alcoholic, and though he's been sober for two years, most of his neighbors still remember him as a embarrassing drunk, while his ex-wife now lives with another man. Syracuse tries to scratch out a living from the ocean and help support his young daughter, Annie

PG-13,

Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Neil Jordan

Sep 21, 2010

$0.5M

Magnolia Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (95) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (28) | DVD (3)

It's impossibly romantic; Farrell and real-life partner Bachleda exude a tamped-down longing that intensifies as the movie draws to its conclusion.

July 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Some complexities of story will be lost on audiences not tuned to the regional Irish brogue that is the mother tongue of this little fishing community. But Christopher Doyle's dark lush photography plucks the green coast of Cork like a harp.

June 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Film.com
Film.com
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Among the film's pleasures is a disarmingly tender performance from the new, improved Colin Farrell.

June 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Globe
Boston Globe
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Silkies aren't the only creatures who can inhabit two worlds. As Annie knows, and as Jordan's film makes clear, stories enable us to step outside the quotidian world and dream, if only for an hour or two.

June 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
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Jordan starts to tell an intriguing tale about living with fantasy but falls back on plot turns cued to the flashing lights of cops and paramedics.

June 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A lyrical, if slight, breeze of an Irish fable.

June 18, 2010
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An Irish selkie tale for adults.

December 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

Understated in its subversion of, and then canny adherence to, its chosen folklore

November 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness
Lessons of Darkness

A fairy tale for adults from Neil Jordan

September 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Habit
Movie Habit

Jordan has a gift for presenting fairy tales that somehow manage to be rooted in a very gritty real world. He makes us believe in the possibility of something we know to be impossible.

September 23, 2010 Full Review Source: KPBS.org
KPBS.org

full review at Movies for the Masses

September 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses
Movies for the Masses

He's an Irishman, she's a seal. It'll never work.

August 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin State Journal

An imperfect film, but it's the kind of imperfect film with staying power.

August 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Ondine works OK when it's trying to be a romantic fantasy. Screenwriter/director Neil Jordan can't leave well enough alone, though. His fable suddenly turns dark and nasty in the final third, when it becomes a thriller.

July 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

At its most affecting, this uneven quasi-fantasy is about people hungering for myth

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

Hard to swallow fish tale.

July 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Ondine is one of those lovely things that dissolves beneath too intent a gaze.

July 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Before we're bogged down in melodrama, we float along as if we're passengers on Syracuse's boat, enjoying the superb performances and the slow rocking rhythm rolling out the love story.

July 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Indie Movies Online
Indie Movies Online

Irish writer-director Neil Jordan will always be best remembered for The Crying Game and its penile plot twist, but there's infinitely more to his filmography than surprise shemales.

July 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

Fantastical Neil Jordan drama sees Colin Farrell's best performance yet

June 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Ondine works best when it stays in the dreamy realm of enchantment...

June 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Playback:stl
Playback:stl

Has such a breezy, playful sense of despair about it... The appeal is very much its delicacy, both as magical realism love story and bleak story of broken people in a run-down community.

June 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Antagony & Ecstasy

Curiously, Jordan isn't sure what kind of mermaid movie to make.

June 25, 2010 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment (1)
eFilmCritic.com

Audience Reviews for Ondine

I respond well to movies with honesty and heart, and Ondine has plenty of both. Set in an Irish fishing town, you can also feel the love and respect of the filmmaker for the rugged and beautiful setting. The performances are excellent, with especially good work by the the young Alison Barry playing the part of Colin Farrell's daughter, who suffers from kidney failure and must undergo regular dialysis (reminded me of the early work of Dakota Fanning).
The film's "feel" is a bit darker than I expected, making the injections of wry Irish humor in Colin's confessions to the priest (played by Stephen Rea) even more enjoyable. The script keeps you wondering until very near the end, "Is this really a modern fairy tale, or is there a more earthly explanation?"
June 13, 2011
deano
Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

Niel Jordan's take on the fairytale genre is completely the opposite of what you'd expect. Mainly because it doesn't mind being one for the most part. The only real criticism that is given to the Knight in Shining Armor/Damsel in Distress scenario is that everyone has a past; these people had lives before they fell in love. With Colin Farrell's Syracuse, we basically see his weaknesses from the start, but Ondine's are a lot more misleading and complex. In terms of its physical beauty, Ondine is one powerful looking movie. The cinematography is either something people will love or hate, but I definitely saw it as a thing of mastery. It does a great job of setting up the mood for the story. The thing about Ondine is that it's a highly optimistic story set in an extremely hopeless world and it's executed in a way that you know that without anyone having to tell you straight out. The character interaction and development of Syracuse and Ondine's relationship is presented in a completely flawless way. Maybe that is in part due to the fact that Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda are so undeniably in love; it's chemistry that you just can't buy. Now a lot of people might have trouble accepting Ondine for what it is and what it wants to do, but if you take the time to invest into the characters and story it's hard to not be impressed.
May 24, 2011
ythelastman89

Super Reviewer

    1. Priest: Misery is easy. Happiness you have to work at.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
    1. Syracuse: She sings to the fishes and he catches them.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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Latest News on Ondine

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Foreign Titles

  • OndineOndine - Das Mädchen aus dem Meer (DE)
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