Ondine (2010)

We live in such a cynical time, that it's hard for filmmakers to get audiences to swallow a pure fairy tale. I mean no "tongue-in-cheek" stuff, fairy tale played straight. The last time a major director attempted an honest to goodness fairy tale (that I can think of) was Jacques Demy's "The Magic Donkey" (1970), and even he couldn't get it right, it seemed forced and precious. Writer-director Neil Jordan now gives it a try, and succeeds beautifully. Colin Farrell is a lonely fisherman with a critically ill daughter and an alcoholic ex-wife, who pulls in his net one day and finds a beautiful girl in it. Is she a water nymph/mermaid type thingy? Is she lying? See the movie, no one else did. This lovely film came and went, which means I'll probably have to wait another forty years for a director to have the assurance and vision to give this kind of thing a go.