Ondine (2010)

Colin Farrell plays the kind of wounded figure that can stir a heart... and he nets a woman (literally) who matches him in beauty and moody romanticism.  The gorgeous Irish setting and equally gorgeous leads should make for a lovely fairy tale of a film.  Unfortunately, the delicate poem that this film should have been is wrecked by the sledgehammer that is the actress playing Farrell's young daughter.

Actually, although I'm quite sure the actress is a huge problem -- reciting her lines with almost no shading as she did -- the character herself might be at fault as well.  She's a kind of exists-nowhere caricature: a terminally ill, precocious to the point of irritation, wise-beyond-her-years pain in the ass.

I've got to grade the movie I saw, but that doesn't stop me from believing it should have been so much better.

C