The Secret of Roan Inish
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Movie Reviews of The Secret of Roan Inish
Movie Review: splendid old-fashioned movie experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Given his notorious reputation for cranking out the most politically-correct of films, it's a really pleasant surprise to watch this profoundly conservative effort by John Sayles. Based on a 1959 novel by Rosalie Fry, Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, Sayles' Roan Inish tells the story of a young girl, Fiona, who when her mother dies is sent to live with her grandparents on the Irish coast in the years immediately after WWII. The family had long lived on the island of Roan Inish, in the company of seals, but they were relocated to Donegal during the war and now may have to move again, further inland. There's an ineffable sadness about the old couple, the grandfather especially misses the island and mourns the lost way of life they enjoyed; the grandmother misses Fiona's brother, Jamie, who was swept out to sea in a wooden cradle when they were moving off of Roan Inish. Fiona though is convinced that her baby brother still lives and, indeed, her cousin Eamon tells her that he's been sighted sailing around in his cradle boat. Fiona's grandfather and cousins are only too happy to tell her tales about the family and Roan Inish, maintaining their strong ties to the island at least in memory and recitation. Finally, one cousin, Tadhg--a "dark one" (dark of hair and eye like her brother was)--tells the story of how an ancestor captured a selkie, a seal-woman. The selkies are said to swim ashore in seal form and then strip off their skins to bask in the sun as beautiful women, but if you can grab their skin before they slip away they are bound to you. The family then is descended from this selkie, though one of her children eventually told her where to find the skin and she immediately swam off.
Fiona takes to visiting the island and spots Jamie herself, running naked and picking flowers, but he runs away and sails off in his cradle. She then convinces Eamon that the seals are keeping Jamie to make the family move back to the island, so the two set about secretly restoring the dilapidated huts and gardens, all the while trying to figure out how to coax the grandparents back to Roan Inish.
The film is beautifully shot, by Haskell Wexler, with a lilting Celtic soundtrack, and the cast, apparently professional but largely unknown here in the States, plays it straight down the line, as drama not fantasy. Mr. Sayles never treats the audience as if we need convincing, nor stoops to treat the material ironically. It is simply assumed that we will abandon reason and suspend disbelief, and we're quite happy to do so. The whole is infused with a sentimental longing for tradition, a sense that life has a proper order and we our proper places in that order, and a disdain for change that is positively reactionary and very refreshing. The viewer has no doubt that it is necessary for the Coneelly family, the descendants of the selkie, to live on Roan Inish and that the world is a better place with this balance restored. It's all as anti-modern as can be and makes for a splendid old-fashioned movie experience, for the whole family or just for the adults.
GRADE: A+
Movie Review: Mythic Storytelling and Culture Representation Well Done
Summary: 5 Stars
The Secret of Roan Inish is a unique film which reveals in a slow paced story, the relationship of the Irish people to the sea and land. Roan Inish weaves its magic through the well written dialogue of characters who tell the story of a family ancestor who was a mythological selkie, as well as the lost infant raised by seals who populate the abandoned island. They comment on the loss of native language and culture by a generation of young islanders who left for jobs in the city. The return of a small island girl to her grandparents permits director John Sayles to examine with the girl, the island's history, and its community whose knowledge is grounded in oral history and the past. Set in the post-war economy, desire to leave the old ways to incorporate benefits of modern urban life is seen only briefly as intrusive on the people whose community is intimately tied to the sea. The strength of the film is in how it presents the need and place of intergenerational knowledge, the preservation of the language, and the unique place of ethnic heritage based in oral traditions.
What sets this film apart from others is how it is a "family film" without resorting to clichés, but instead, is the kind of movie entertaining to all age groups without talking down to anyone. That the film was not better marketed is likely the fault of the studio that did not know how to sell the film's idea to American audiences grown accustomed to mindless car chases, exploding buildings, and gratuitous violence as well as irritating, smart-mouth kid actors. Roan Inish has none of these elements although the brief nudity of one child actor could offend some who would find offense in any presentation of the human form in any context. But for this, the film allows audiences to be drawn into the story of children who value and desire to restore their heritage and family, and take responsibility to act.
The production values of this film are high, its plot thoroughly believable. DP Haskell Wexler uses the beauty of the Irish countryside to paint a stunning image of the landscape and sea that makes one wish to return to the old sod. Sayles's cast are character actors not familiar to most audiences in the US, but who are able to carry the film with authenticity and grace. The child actors are especially mature and believable. This is a film that should be seen by more audiences but probably won't and that is unfortunate for The Secret of Roan Inish is a gem in a sea of mediocre Hollywood fare. One of the finest family films for all libraries and an overlooked Sayles gem.
Movie Review: Powerful Irish myth and magic.
Summary: 5 Stars
Set on the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the small island of Roan Inish, this John Sayles-directed film idealizes a family's connections to the sea and celebrates their sea-faring history and culture in the face of twentieth century "progress." Fiona, about ten, is sent to live with her grandparents there after her mother dies and her father is too grief-stricken to care for her. Some years earlier, in the same community, Fiona's baby brother Jamie had floated out to sea in his cradle, and her father and grandfather, unable to row fast enough to rescue him, had suffered that loss, too.
Fiona's participation in the seafaring life of her grandparents and cousin Eamon, exposes her to the legends and stories which have formed the backbone of her family culture. A relative tells her about "the dark ones," members of her family thought to be descended from a selkie. This mermaid-like creature, part-human and part seal, is said to have borne several children by one of Fiona's ancestors before finding the hidden sealskin from which she had originally emerged. Putting on her old skin, she had obeyed the call of the sea, returning to her oceanic life and leaving her family behind.
Fiona, believing that her brother Jamie is living with the seals on Roan Inish, explores the island with her cousin Eamon, searching for her roots and Jamie. Jeni Courtney as Fiona will capture your heart. A beautiful child with a sense of innocence, Courtney has an instinctive sense of how to play her role without being cute, respecting the myths she is portraying and throwing herself wholeheartedly into her role. Mick Lally and Eileen Colgan, as the grandparents, inextricably tied the island and its way of life, give a sense of gravitas to supernatural events.
The cinematography (Haskell Wexler) is stunning--both interior cottage scenes and exterior scenes of the island, sea, fog, seals, and storms. Almost any shot could be freeze-framed as a portrait or landscape, its composition preserving the emotion and the meaning. The music, primarily flute, fiddle, and bodhran drum, perfectly captures the changing moods and enhances the unearthly mythology. With less gifted actors and direction, the plot of this film would be treacly fare, but Sayles, who also wrote the screenplay and did the editing, has created a brilliant film, memorializing a way of life and appealing to adults as well as younger audiences. Mary Whipple
Movie Review: A modern-day Celtic folktale lovingly brought to life
Summary: 5 Stars
John Sayles's Secret of Roan Inish is based upon the short story The Secret of Roan Inish/Movie Tie-In by Rosalie K. Fry, which explored the Celtic legend of the selkie, seals that can turn into humans. Ten-year-old Fiona has been living in the city, but is sent to live with her grandparents on a remote island in Donegal, Ireland. She plunges into the mystery of the disappearance of her younger brother Jamie, and along the way meets her strange cousin Tadhg (John Lynch), who tells her the story of her selkie ancestor. Fiona is consumed with her quest to find her brother, whom she's seen swimming with the seals, and to convince her grandparents that she's telling the truth.
The cinematography of craggy Donegal is beautifully shot, bringing to life the small fishing community where Fiona's family lives. Flashbacks capably illustrate the unusual pedigree of Fiona's ancestors, and it's telling that child Fiona has no trouble in understanding Tadhg, while adults write him off as odd. There are excellent performances all around, including the perhaps-familiar-to-American-audiences brother-and-sister team of John and Susan Lynch (The Secret Garden, Sliding Doors, Elizabeth - The Golden Age (Widescreen Edition)) and Mick Lally (Circle of Friends, Alexander - Director's Cut (Full Screen Edition)) as Fiona's grandfather.
The film's soundtrack by Mason Daring also deserves special mention. A unique blend of haunting original score, Celtic jigs, and Irish-language vocals, it captures the maritime feel of rural Ireland as well as moves the movie along through some of the more haunting dream sequences.
This is a gentle film that is slow to unfold, but one that is ultimately rewarding and perfect for family viewing.
Movie Review: Delightful, magical, rare
Summary: 5 Stars
Those three words pretty much sum up the entire film. Delightful for both adults (even those without kids), teenagers, and children alike. Magical in its setting, telling, and plot. Rare in its innocent, but complex and far from sugary tale.
Based on the novel, "The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry," this film is set in post-war Ireland it tells the tale of Fiona, a little girl with three older brothers and a widower father. Before WWII, the family had lived a pastoral life on the islands to the west of the mainland. Right before they were evacuated, Fiona's mother died, leaving a newborn brother behind. But as the family prepared to leave the island for good, Jamie, in his little cradle boat, was swept off the beach and into the waves in a freak storm. Fiona's father and brothers race in a row boat to find him, but the cradle is carried away at an unnatural speed and little Jamie is eventually lost in the storm.
And so the family goes to the mainland. Fiona and her brothers move to the city, where her father and brothers work in a laundry. With little time to care for her, her father sends Fiona to his parents on the coast.
It is from her grandparents and her cousin Eamon that Fiona hears the tales about her family, some taller than others. And so she is immersed in the mythology surrounding her family and the sea.
I won't say more. Suffice to say that seals and magic and going backward to go forward are involved. You'll have to watch it for yourself to see the real magic in it.
The cast is amazing, all Irish, if I'm not mistaken. Down to the last actor, they give good, solid, and believable performances. Many children's films are cursed by either bad acting or bad scripts, The Secret of Roan Inish has neither. And so it becomes more than a children's film. The magic is not the wave-of-the-wand kind, nor the kind that comes with a puff of smoke. It's the old kind of magic in fairy tales and legends.
I think I love this film because there are no "bad" parts; no parts I ever want to fast forward through or skip because they are cringe-inducing or "scary." I love every second of this film. And I think you will, too.