The trailer for ONDINE does not even try to capture the delicacy of Neil Jordan‘s new film, which is more lyrical and poetic than suspenseful and melodramatic. Myths and fairy tales are not so much accounts of fancifully impossible events as patterns of experience that provide insight into the quotidian by seeming to defy the probabilities if not the possibilities of daily existence. In the naturalistic universe, those patterns tend to be rudely interrupted (as happens in this film), but the magic lingers and can sometimes be recuperated. Oh yes, this is about a woman plucked from the sea in the net of a fisherman. She calls herself Ondine and he is named Syracuse, and so the pattern begins …

Check listings for viewing options.