PROMISING 'ONDINE REVIEW... IF NOT EVER SO SLIGHTLY ODD ANSWERS FROM BOTH DIRECTOR & ACTOR?!

Monday afternoon saw the world premiere of Neil Jordan's "Ondine."

Taking the stage at the Winter Garden Theater before a crowd that included Bono and The Edge from U2 and directors Jim Sheridan and Terry Gilliam.

Jordan introduced the film by saying, "It's a strange time in the film industry, because nobody has seen this movie. And I think there's a lot of movies in Toronto at the moment that people haven't seen before they're shown here because of the strange distribution situation. Anyway, for me it's great but bear with me, as you're the first audience I've sat among."

Continuing, Jordan added, "I wrote this film about a year and a half ago. In Hollywood the writers strike happened and I went back to Ireland and just wrote something to cheer myself up."

Taking to the stage as well, actor Colin Farrell said, "Neil covered it all. Nobody's seen it, including me-self. So if you hear someone scream, it's probably me."

There were no screams, but perhaps a few tears as the film played out. As the film opens a fisherman (Farrell) pulls up his nets to find a young woman inside. Goaded on partly by his ill daughter -- she slyly notes "curiouser and curiouser" as things become perhaps more clear -- the fisherman comes to believe that the woman is a mythic creature from the sea, and that she may be there for some larger purpose.

A quietly touching take on mythmaking, fantasy and the grounding realities of life, "Ondine" is hard to deny in its simple direct. Farrell, who also has the film "Triage" showing here at the festival, gives another of the gentle, understatedly anguished performances that have recently made him more of a blossoming actor than just a square-jawed leading man.

After the screening, Jordan noted that Alicja Bachleda, the actress who plays the "water baby," as she is called in the film, "couldn't be here with us tonight for reasons I can't fully understand."

Farrell put on a veritable clinic in star-power charisma, charming the audience. When a female audience member commented that Farrell had "touched my heart" he immediately responded, "It was dark and I only meant to brush by you."

SOURCE: ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MARK OSLEN - THE ENVELOPE
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2009/09/curiouser-and-curiouser-ondine.html

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The audience response was very warm and the critics will weigh in today with their reaction. (Their response to Triage and Perrier's Bounty has been tepid so far.) As yet, no distributor has been found in the US, although Ondine has secured worldwide distribution.

Business was reported to be slow in Toronto on its first weekend and no major deals were announced. But at a very small and exclusive after party, Jordan told me he was pretty confident he would secure distribution for the lucrative US market before the end of this week. The CEO of the festival, Piers Handling, said Jordan had been attending Toronto since 1984 when he first came with The Company of Wolves and the organisers had watched his career unfold with pleasure.

Business was reported to be slow in Toronto on its first weekend and no major deals were announced. But at a very small and exclusive after party, Jordan told me he was pretty confident he would secure distribution for the lucrative US market before the end of this week. The CEO of the festival, Piers Handling, said Jordan had been attending Toronto since 1984 when he first came with The Company of Wolves and the organisers had watched his career unfold with pleasure.

Colin Farrell who attended and the party sans co-star and girlfriend said Castletownbere as depicted in the movie was a bit like himself, "rough and ready and kinda beautiful." He said it was a great story of hope and one that had given him great pleasure to work on, in particular going back to Castletownbere where his big break came with Falling For A Dancer.

SOURCE:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/farrell-and-bonomania-as-irish-take-over-toronto-film-festival-14493851.html