THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This is a moody Irish children's
fantasy written and directed by John Sayles. A
ten-year-old girl goes to live with her fisherman
grandfather's family and discovers her family
traditions tied in with mythical selkies. The
photography is moody, but the story and the cold,
wet landscapes are hard to warm up to. Some nice
animal photography also sets the scene. Rating:
low +1 (-4 to +4)
The scene is an Irish fishing village in the late 1940s, and this is the sort of story that might be told to children around the hearth. Fiona (played by Jeni Courtney) goes to live with her grandparents so she can get away from the city and so that her father can devote his time to drinking. There, amid the gulls and the fish and the seals, she hears mysterious folktales of her family history, especially the story that one of her relatives had really been a selkie. A selkie, in Irish tradition, is a seal who can turn into a human. The "dark ones" of her family are really just showing more of their seal heritage. And there is the tale of Fiona's own brother who was washed out to sea ina boat-shaped cradle, but who some say is occasionally still seen. Fiona hears the folk stories from her grandfather (Mile Lally) and other members of her family--"superstition" her grandmother (Eileen Colgan) calls the stories. But they send Fiona's imagination racing and the somber, wet landscapes under what always seems an overcast sky (even when it looks blue) only set the mood for the mystical and the supernatural. Before she is done Fiona's own experience will make for a new tale to join the others.
In Ireland this may well work as a family film, but it is a little hard for American children to follow. The Irish-American co-production is written and directed by John Sayles in a style very different from his MATEWAN or his EIGHT MEN OUT or just about anything else that Sayles has done. Sayles has taken as his source Rosalie K. Fry's children's novel SECRET OF THE RON MOR SKERRY. Indeed, in the United States some children will enjoy this film, but the thick, sometimes impenetrable, Irish accents and the generally somber tone and photography may make this a children's film that can be appreciated only by adults.
Much of the interest value of the film is in its portrait of fishing village life in Ireland. The simple hearthside diet of fish and soup in the thatched houses, the hard work on the fishing boats and on the shore, and the eternal gray skies combine to make a portrait that is bleak, but well-observed. Sayles takes his time telling his story as a combination of Fiona's experiences and a mosaic of the stories told to Fiona. Apparently this structure is hard on some children. Several of the children in our audience had to have the plot details explained to them by parents who were probably having some problems themselves, at least with the accents.
Fiona is played by Jeni Courtney who seems already accomplished as an actress in spite of her young age. Lally and Colgan are each enjoyable to watch in each's own way. Veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler has managed some nice animal photography. Irish music also helps to set the feel of the film. Not a bad film, but the story is a little slow and unambitious. I give it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
.
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