Or is it just some chick in the water?
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
Jordan tries to keep Ondine's identity - i.e. whether she is human or a selkie (not technically a mermaid) - a mystery for most of the film.
It's only towards the end that we discover that she's a Romanian drug mule.
The second twist is that there is actually no difference between selkies and Romanian drug mules.
Just joking, obviously.
I thought the twist was handled well, as Jordan really gets you believing along with Annie that Ondine is a selkie by the end of the film.
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Sort of both.
She is just a chick in the water, really. But those in the movie that believe that she is a selkie, and believe that she can do magic (like bring luck and make wishes come true), they actually get lucky and get their wishes. So the movie is sort of magical anyway. If you want to see it that way. But you don't have to, if you don't want to. It works both ways.
Like the scene towards the end (SPOILER!)
where she makes a wish herself, her first wish ever in the movie: that Annie should get well. And just as she makes that wish, the movie cuts to a different place where we see a car crash, that results in someone dying, who has a kidney that matches Annie, so that she can get the kidney transplant she needs. Selkies are supposed to bring good luck, and bad. This was definitely good luck for Annie, and bad luck for the one who died in the car crash.
If she was human how come she wasn't completely drowned dead when he hoisted her up in his net?
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The one who died was Annie's stepfather. That's why her mother was chucking his ashes into the sea before his wake.
shareTechnically he wasn't her stepfather. Did you hear Annie's mother as she tossed his ashes...She mentioned that he had a wife and 2 kids in Scotland...I believe...So apparently he was married and messing around on the side, but she did love him. I guess the fact that he was sort of a cad was supposed to make it more palatable that Ondine's wish may have caused him to die.
shareProbably like most everyone else I wanted her to be a mythical creature as well, but that was not the case. She was a criminal. Period. She was rescued in the nick of time.
The happenings that made the "happy ending" were not due to her powers. I actually think that the priest was the symbolic character in the story. Many religions believe that priests are a direct connection with the higher power. Even Annie went to talk to him.
In the end I wondered more if this was a movie to promote religion rather than karma. The good guys won...ok that's great....but it seemed to me that the message was that God had something to do with the changing of everyone's lives and not that anyone in the movie had any special powers or that the "universe" and/or karma had anything to do with it.
(I'm not trying to bash or get into a religious battle here, I'm just saying that's what the story seemed to portray in a symbolic manner).
Probably like most everyone else I wanted her to be a mythical creature as well, but that was not the case. She was a criminal. Period. She was rescued in the nick of time.
water nymph...
shareOne thing that made me suspicious was the fact that she was wearing clothes when she was rescued in the net. Wouldn't a Selkie be nude when she loses her skin?
It was a beautiful film, though.
This is what I had in mind as well. However, as this movie was co-produced by USA it's nothing unusual, if American producers want their movie to get PG certification characters have to take shower at least in T-shirts and jeans and doctors have to perform operations through coats. So in American movies seals wear a dress under their fur, just in case they ever lose it and become human...
shareI think it's kept ambiguous enough that people can decide for themselves.
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