Much like "The Secret Garden", this is a film about the unlikely combination of everyday reality and pure magic. The character of Fiona (played by Jeni Courtney) is like every free and beautiful little girl that you've ever encountered rolled into one. She has such a wonderful outlook on life; honest and serious, faithful and fanciful. This is an improbable film for director John Sayles, an American filmmaker who usually sticks much closer to home. More pleasing still is the fact that he takes an honest, unfiltered view of the Irish culture that is so intrinsic to the story being told.
"The Secret of Roan Inish" is about storytelling, from an inner and outer perspective. Each character is deeply concerned with sharing his or her own tale or take on local folklore. The script takes all sorts of beautiful sidelines into the tales of Fiona's relatives and anyone else who happens to pass by. Particularly fascinating is the performance of John Lynch, whose character tells the legend of the Selkie (played by his sister, Susan Lynch). The images of the seal woman are breathtaking, painful in their uncertain waking beauty.
The final result of the film is something between the purity of childhood and the trust of self. I was taken in not only by the overwhelming sense of the unknown, but by everything fearful and wonderful in the making known of the same. This is one of the most enrapturing motion pictures I've ever seen.
"The Secret of Roan Inish" is about storytelling, from an inner and outer perspective. Each character is deeply concerned with sharing his or her own tale or take on local folklore. The script takes all sorts of beautiful sidelines into the tales of Fiona's relatives and anyone else who happens to pass by. Particularly fascinating is the performance of John Lynch, whose character tells the legend of the Selkie (played by his sister, Susan Lynch). The images of the seal woman are breathtaking, painful in their uncertain waking beauty.
The final result of the film is something between the purity of childhood and the trust of self. I was taken in not only by the overwhelming sense of the unknown, but by everything fearful and wonderful in the making known of the same. This is one of the most enrapturing motion pictures I've ever seen.