Only Lovers Left Alive

There seems to be at last few additions to Vampire movies subgenre every year nowadays. There are big, loud, obnoxious blockbusters with vampire mythos thrown in there just to attract more audiences and there are small, contemplative movies that won't make big money and won't win any awards (horror genre and everything connected to it is notoriously overlooked when awards are handed out) but they have a chance of becoming cult classic in the future.

Oz: The Great and Powerful

(spoilers about the Wicked Witch of the West and the very ending)

Disney doesn't give up. Since Johnny Depp is slowly becoming more annoying than charming and their last attempt to launch new trilogy - in a dreaded title John Carter - misfired like the smelly poop in clogged toilet, they are, poor things, time and time again challenged to come up with something "new" that will prove to be profitable. And those poor things, even when they succeed in unleashing half assed movie that will bring them money just can't get the people to do sequel soon enough. With Tim Burton taking his sweet time on Alice in Wonderland 2, what else to do than look for another adventure that will hopefully bring tons of money?

One Day

26/100 (107 min, 2011)
Plot: After spending the night together on the night of their college graduation Dexter and Em are shown each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. They are sometimes together, sometimes not, on that day.
Director: Lone Scherfig
Writers: David Nicholls (screenplay), David Nicholls (book)
Stars: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess and Patricia Clarkson

The not so charming union of bad accent and bad acting

How hard can it be to make a fine romantic movie? I'm starting to think that it may be the hardest thing in the movie business. Why? Because the amount of crappy romantic comedies and other pseudo romance movies we are flooded with lately is scary. Say what you want about Hugh Grant, but at least when he was starring in those things they were proper movies with lots of laugh and romanticism. Now we get products like "One Day".

How do you make a successful movie? You have to have a good script. How do you make a good romantic film? You have to have two strong leads with chemistry. Does "One Day" has either one of those? Oh no, it doesn't. I can see the producers' reasoning - the story is quite romantic - the idea of two people meeting for one day each year, Jim Sturgess is good looking enough and Anne Hathaway is cute. But the story is horribly undeveloped, Sturgess has the screen charisma of a potato and Hathaway's accent is one of the most atrocious things I've heard in a long time. It could even challenge what Swank sounded like in "Black Dahlia". On the side note - why is an American playing a British girl? I'm pretty sure they could have found much prettier and talented girl than Hathaway in any given pub in London.

Orphan

86/100 (123 min, 2009)
Plot: A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writers: David Johnson (screenplay), Alex Mace (story)
Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman

Do you wanna play?

The tagline reads 'There's something wrong with Esther' and that pretty much sums up everything - little girl is taken from orphanage to live with the nice family. But that little girl is so disturbing, does things so unthinkable that I think she is the only psychopath who could challenge Patrick Bateman for a fight and actually stand a chance at winning it. She is capable of committing murder in cold blood, attacking others, even endangering little child's life.

The character of Esther is played by, then 11-year old Isabelle Fuhrman. That was the best performance given by a child I've ever seen - I have no idea how she did that. Esther is also one of the most interesting movie-psychos all around and I'm sure girls dressed as her during Halloween back when the movie was in theatres. In many reviews people wrote she is creepier than Damien in 'Omen'. I agree - the scene with Russian roulette especially froze my blood. Esther was originally written as having fair skin, delicate features, and platinum blonde hair. Isabelle Fuhrman doesn't look like that at all. However, the filmmakers, understandably so, were so impressed with her auditions that they cast her anyway.

Ondine

(111 min, 2009)
Plot: The story of an Irish fisherman who discovers a woman in his fishing net who he believes to be a Selke (a water nymph).
Director: Neil Jordan
Writer: Neil Jordan
Stars: Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda and Dervla Kirwan
 

Stories from the sea...

“I'm sitting with you
Sitting in silence
Let's sing into the years, like one
Singing in tune, together
A psalm for no one
Let's sing in tune
But now it's home”
- Sigur Ros, “All Alright”

“Ondine” tells the story of an Irish fisherman who discovers a woman in his fishing net who he believes to be a mermaid.

This is a very lovely and charming movie. It's directed by Neil Jordan, fairly well known director who is responsible for one of the best vampire movies ever “Interview with the Vampire”. But this movie is nothing like it – it doesn't have glamorous stars in the cast, overwhelming images and music. It's set in a simple Irish town, at the coast, where ordinary people have their ordinary lives.

But with the appearance of the mysterious girl, the life of one of those people, fisherman named Syracuse (Colin Farrell) changes. His ill daughter thinks that the girl is a mermaid and starts researching legends about them. The girl herself, who doesn't want to be seen by anyone, tells Syracuse her name is Ondine which means sea fairy. When Ondine is around, Syracuse finally has some luck – he catches a lot of fish, he's happier and his life doesn't seem so ordinary anymore. There is a sense of mystery and enchantment about Ondine, her secrecy and curious song she keeps singing.

The movie is doing great job at showing that even if there may be no real magic in our world, some of the events in our lives may be perceived as one – luck, love, happiness. Mermaid or not, Ondine brings a lot of charm to the lives of Syracuse and little Annie – him, leading dull life so far, filled with regrets and guilt (he is an alcoholic), and Annie having serious illness that costs her much pain. Even though the characters of this film have been through a lot of hurt and misery, they never lose their spirits, they never complain about their fate. They keep on going, because really, what other choice do they have.

The town the events take place is small so Syracuse doesn't go to AA meetings – there aren't any in the area. Instead he goes to confession and talks with the Priest (Stephen Rea, who appears frequently in Jordan's movies). Those scenes bring a lot of comic relief and insight in the character of Syracuse.

There are many lovely scenes between Syracuse and Ondine – she is played by Alicja Bachleda, Polish actress. Farrell and her began their love affair during shooting of this movie, they are still together and have a son. In my country they are probably more popular than Brad and Angelina. And no wonder they fell in love on the set of “Ondine”. Despite the fact it's not a glamorous Hollywood love story, the films is very romantic and has some beautiful lines of dialogue between the two of them.

Even though the movie had fairly low budget the cinematography is outstanding – there are some astonishingly beautiful shots in the movie that combined with the score created by Kjartan Sveinsson from Sigur Ros add to the movie's mystery and frequently create enchanting, dreamlike feeling. All of that builds amazing atmosphere and despite movie's fairly slow pace it keeps you watching.

Farrell's performance is great, he is a very talented and under appreciated actor. He displays such sadness and understanding of his simple fate that it's hard not to feel for him. He is great in his scenes with Annie, played by Alison Barry, who creates very mature and sweet character. Bachleda is perfect fit for Ondine, Jordan chose her because he wanted little known actress to play the part – she is terrific in her scenes with Annie and when she charmingly avoids Syracuse's questions.

Somewhere along in the movie an element of danger appears and results in the answer for the movie's mystery. But in every fairytale there has to be a villain. Near the ending scenes are not as good as first hour of the film, because the amazing atmosphere achieved so far is somewhat abandoned, but I guess the director had to tie all the lose ends somehow. But I did enjoy the ending, which brought us back to the seductive charm of this film.

“Ondine” is a great movie, very original love story between two characters that are lost but had the amazing luck of meeting each other in truly magical circumstances. The movie is not a masterpiece and there are plenty of better love stories, but it has very well developed characters and this unique feel of delicateness – it doesn't hurry the story, the director let's the events unfold slowly. And whilst it's all happening, the mystery is about to be explained and the feeling between Syracuse and Ondine keeps getting stronger, the viewer finds out that there is really so much magic in the world - even in the most unexpected places.

79/100