Ondine

Colin Farrell met the mother of his second child on the set of Ondine, and the beauty of Polish co-star Alicja Bachleda-Curus is good enough reason to believe, as Farrell's trawlerman did, that she's a mermaid.

Written and directed by Neil Jordan, this romantic mystery is also a loving tribute to the Irish coastline. On location in a County Cork fishing community, cinematographer Christopher Doyle captured grey-green, moody images and misty hues that are easy on the eye. The Irish actors' accents are not so easy on the ear; the movie is best seen on a DVD with English-language subtitles.

A drowning girl who eventually identifies herself as Ondine ("from the water") is caught in his net by bearded Syracuse. She needs a secret sanctuary, which he conveniently has. Essentially for the plot, he also has a precocious young daughter with a kidney disorder.

The mermaid brings luck and good catches to the fisherman. Can she cure the girl, and save her own human existence? Who is the saturnine man posing on headlands, watching her? What has she got to do with the Orkney legend of the selkie, introduced to the girl by her mother's Scottish drinking buddy and boyfriend. Can Syracuse stay on the wagon?

It's difficult to care, although Farrell's facial acting and screen presence remain at the higher levels reached recently, as in Doctor Parnassus and In Bruges. Stephen Rea contributes a beguiling cameo supporting role as Syracuse's laconic confessor. The young girl (Alison Barry) is photogenic but has been given unbearably pretentious vocabulary and a cloying character only suited to Romantics addicted to honey-saturated shamrock.

Farrell and his co-star sail well through Jordan's far-fetched fantasy. The Irish film and tourism boards probably loved the movie their government co-funded. Young Henry Farrell will grow up knowing that this film gave him life. That's enough happy people for one movie.