Imdb Ranking 6.8
Once upon a time on the coast of Cork, Syracuse (Colin Farrell) is a fisherman who lives with his daughter Annie who has failing kidneys and rides in a wheel chair. One day in his nets he pulls up a young woman, nearly drowned. She doesn't want people to see her and she doesn't know her name. He pulls his boat in to a beautiful cove, and brings Ondine to the house where his mother used to live.
The girl tells Syracuse he can call her Ondine, which she says means 'she came from the water'. When Ondine goes out on the boat with Syracuse she sings and the lobsters go in to Syracuse's traps.
When Syracuse goes to confession we learn he has been sober for over two years. Because of the stories her father has been telling her, Annie goes to the library and starts reading up on selkies, which is a seal that turns in to a human while on land. When Annie finally sees Ondine, she thinks she has found her selkie.
A mysterious man starts hanging around. Ondine takes Annie out in to the water and then she finds a bag in the water and buries it. We then find out that Syracuse stopped drinking when he came home and found Annie unconscious, and the mother, Maura, was drunk too. When he stopped drinking the wife kicked him out.
When Syracuse comes home we see that his house has been ransacked and Syracuse finds Ondine hiding. Later Maura and her husband get in a drunken car accident, with Annie in the car. Maura gets beat up and the husband dies. The mysterious man meets up with Ondine.
Syracuse gets drunk at the wake, and takes off in his boat. Later Ondine tells Syracuse the truth. She is a drug mule from Romania. She had heroin in her backpack and when the Coast Guard came she dove in to the water. The man and a friend come to the house looking for the backpack. They manage to push them in to the water, and one drowned and the other was arrested.
In order for Odine to stay in Ireland she has to marry a national, and Syracuse decides to go for it.
Ondine really had died in the water. When she came out and met Syracuse and Annie she became a new person. A nice little movie.
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The Irish Film and Television Awards , February 20, 2010
Actor in a Lead Role: Film: Colin Farrell
Supporting Actress in a Film: Dervla Kirwan
Production Design: Anna Rackard
Sound: Brendan Deasy, Tom Johnson & Sarah Gaines
