Here’s what we consider some good news.
Acquisitions might have been slow at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, but one of our personal favorites (or at least this writer’s personal favorites, Neil Jordan’s Irish sea-nymph fantasy picture, “Ondine,” starring Colin Farrell is finally getting U.S. distribution.
Movieline has learned that Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to the picture, which we admitted in our TIFF review was not perfect — the twist, thriller-like ending could be a dealbreaker for some — but it was enchanting and romantically evocative enough to be a very sweet and memorable fairytale that we look back on very fondly.
Other elements that perhaps helped in our affection for the picture: beautiful cinematography from Wong Kar-Wai’s longtime and estimable cinematographer Christopher Doyle and a gorgeously dreamy score by Sigur Rós’ keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson (the band’s “All Alright” song also plays a pretty prominent role in the picture).
The picture stars Farrell as a recovering alcoholic fisherman who picks up a thought-to-be-drowned women in his trolley boat’s net (the comely Polish actress Alicja Bachleda, who has since become the mother of Farrell’s second child). His inquisitive daughter (a wonderfully precocious Alison Barry) begins to believes the girl — who quickly becomes part of their lives — is a sea-nymph/mermaid and a mystery unfolds when a strange, ominous man starts to track her whereabouts in this small Irish fishing town.
Movieline suggests the sex scene in the picture — admittedly fairly hot and shows, ahem, a lot of Bachleda — may have been cut to achieve its recently PG-13 rating and their posit might be on to something there. If that’s the case it will be too bad for U.S. theatergoers, but our eyes will never forget. No release date yet, but our guess would be sometime in the Spring. Magnolia’s sub-wing distribution arm, Magnet, will release Bong Joon-Ho’s “Mother” on March 12, so our guess would be sometime after that.
Sigur Rós’ – “All Alright”