“Scratch an Irishman,” Father John my Catholic priest cousin in Ireland once said, “and you find a pagan.” This explains everything from Leprechauns, the Little People, fairy rings and pots of gold. Then there’s the Selkie.
A Selkie is a mythological creature said to look like a seal and breathe under water (which seals cannot do, but no matter) until they shed their skin and take on human form. The legend is found in several seafaring countries, including Iceland and Scotland, and is the underpinning for “Ondine,” an Irish love story written and directed by Neil Jordan.
Jordan, you will remember, was the writer/director and winner of Best Screenplay for the Irish/British drama “The Crying Game” (1992) which starred Stephen Rea. Rae has a minor but entertaining role in “Ondine” as a wizened priest who takes confession.
“Remember the story of the king who had a secret and couldn’t tell anyone so he told it to a tree?” Syracuse “The Clown” (Colin Farrell) asks his priest.
“I am an ash.”
Syracuse was not in the circus before he became a fisherman. Rather, his epithet is a carryover from his former life as raging alcoholic.
Ondine is the French feminine for “water sprite,” which can also mean mermaid. She is played by Mexican-born actress Alicja Bachieda with a completely unidentifiable accent. It is perhaps Balkan, but it could as easily be Finnish, Russian or Estonian. Ondine says little and keeps to herself. She does not want to be seen by others which Syracuse accepts without question, especially after she brings him phenomenal luck fishing. He leaves her in an isolated cabin that was his mother’s house.
Syracuse has a disabled daughter Annie (Alison Barry) who provides a somewhat maudlin plot device. Annie has terminal kidney failure. However, she gets a new electric wheelchair, studies up on the Selkie and goes to visit Ondine at grandma’s house. This serves to convince both her father and us that the otherwise very womanly woman pulled from the sea and brought back to life with a breath really is a Selkie.
I recall one other film dealing with the legend of the Selkie. John Sales’ “The Secret of Roan Inish” (1994) did not use the legend anywhere nearly as well as Jordan does in “Ondine.” If you saw “The Crying Game” (if you have not, you really should), you know Jordan can fake out the most cynical moviegoer. “Ondine” is a good title, is a good movie, provides good entertainment. The problem I had was either the sound system itself, or else everyone in the film was whispering. Still, the story overcame this failing.
