Ondine 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: There are some interesting secondary characters, but you didn't get I thought a full enough sense of this world and it's dramatic stakes. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: In Ondine, a film about a fisherman and a mythical sea creature, Neil Jordan shows his fondness for fantasy worlds. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The intention outweighs the execution, though there are still pleasures to be had. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Why is the dialogue so muffled and clipped that it's hard to understand? Why didn't Mr. Jordan spend more time grounding his self-enchanted script in some semblance of reality? Read more

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times: Jordan, who also wrote the screenplay, makes some gentle jabs at small-town nosiness and claustrophobia, even as he spins out the shadowy riddles of the story. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: 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. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Ondine looks heavy and it ends up feeling a little slight, but between those two extremes there's a beguiling siren song of a movie about the way the unexpected has a way of intruding on even the most fatalistic lives. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Among the film's pleasures is a disarmingly tender performance from the new, improved Colin Farrell. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The characters' needs are so simple they're almost mysterious, and the story traces an elusive line between fond fantasy and harsh reality. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: This movie is a one-of-a-kind experience -- blarney carried to rhapsodic heights. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Women tend to hide secrets in the original scripts of filmmaker Neil Jordan. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: There is enough saving grace on these craggy shores to let the mists and the legends roll in and envelop you for a while. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's impossibly romantic; Farrell and real-life partner Bachleda exude a tamped-down longing that intensifies as the movie draws to its conclusion. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: If only the film had stuck with its fairy-tale story. Instead, the final 30 minutes turn into a bloody thriller with a tacked-on happy ending. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I doubt if it has much commercial appeal, but even with its flaws, it could be fresh and offbeat enough to please discerning art-house audiences who ask for more with their Irish breakfast tea than a water biscuit. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Full of melancholy and blarney... Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: If this movie were a human being, it would be intelligent and sincere but so depressed as to be unable to get out of bed without a forklift. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ondine is so good it hurts. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ondine is dipped in whimsy and might have drifted out to sea, but it's bounded on four sides by love stories - between a father and a daughter, a man and a mermaid, an actor and his co-star, and a director and his country. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Intoxicatingly beautiful... Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: A clunky third-act shift into thriller territory only makes 'Ondine' more confused: ambitious and deeply felt, to be sure, but also winsome and wildly uneven. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Writer/director Neil Jordan gradually builds up the possibility of fairy-tale magic in an identifiably real world, and then systematically knocks it down. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: 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. Read more