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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Insatiable Ocean, February 8, 2002
"I'll start at the beginning, as all stories must..."
- Celia (Lynn Redgrave)
A good story has the power to heal and if you have seen The Secret of Roan Inish, you will enjoy this story even more. You are immediately drawn into this haunting tale by a rather moody Claire Mackay (Julia Brendler), a grieving teenage violinist who seems uninterested in living in an isolated island community off the coast of Nova Scotia.
She and her mother (Alberta Watson) arrive on the island and Claire is given a package to deliver, which she forgets at the beach. After a fight with her mother, she finds an emotional release in swimming as far as she can into the water's salty soul. The viewer might assume she has drowned as I did, but suddenly we find her washed up on the beach with the small package floating in the edges of the foamy surf at her bare feet.
Claire's brooding moods almost border on depression at first until she finds Celia (Lynn Redgrave), the owner of the package. We soon find out this is a story Celia is writing has been rejected by the publishers. As she hangs the dripping pages up to dry on the clothesline, Claire becomes rather interested in the story.
Two stories then start to intertwine like seaweed waving on the floor of the ocean. Claire and Silly's lives have so many similarities. They are almost mirrors to one another's souls. Celia knows that her story was just waiting for Claire to discover it.
Silly (Kirsten Dunst) is the girl in Celia's story who is born at the beginning of the fishing season on a cursed island, she has a strange affinity to the call of the sea. As she swims in the ocean as a very young child, her eyes change color and this startles her mother. No one in the fishing village will tell her about the ancient legend of a Viking ship that passed by so long ago and was shipwrecked near the island.
The island is cursed and every 50 years the fish dissapear and someone drowns to break the curse. Everyone on the island believes that the sea has come to take that individual as a sacrifice. While this part of the story seems pretty intense, it is played out rather mildly in the film.
This is also a love story where two people find one another quite by chance. James (Trent Ford), the son of a wealthy British Admiral is drawn to the island and falls in love with Silly. He spends most of his time camped out in a tent on the beach where they meet occasionally. James and Silly share moments of happiness, but sadly make the mistake of taking destiny in their own hands and run into a storm they cannot control.
If you love the sound of the ocean, the feel of sand between your toes and a salty breeze tousling your hair, this movie will take you there.
Lingering memories melt with myth to capture the
essence of beauty you expect from a fairy tale.
~The Rebecca Review
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sincere story that never really reaches a true climax, November 1, 2003
What could have been a truly touching drama becomes tiresome at times. When a young girl is taken to a cursed, remote island by her mom, she comes to learn about the history of this place. She's told of Kirsten, who plays a special girl called Silly, who holds the secret of lifting a curse which plagues the island every 50 years. Only problem is, all the townsfolk seem to know this secret, except of course Miss Silly. Uhmm . . . I wonder how she got that silly name? You'd think by the time you're 16 years old, you'd have done just about everything to everyone to get some answers and come out of the dark. Nooo, not Miss Silly. She pouts and screams and stamps her foot, to no avail. Although I managed to shed some tears in the final sequences, the preceding scenes are so drawn out, that the viewer can't help but feel that the director is purposely trying to torture us into thinking that there is an extremely blinding light at the end of the tunnel. But at the end of the day, all we get is a light no brighter than all the rest. Three stars for solid acting, effective atmosphere and a moving score.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Needs some Work.., September 8, 2002
Deeply is the story of a teenager (Claire) and her mom, who travels to a remote Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, determined to put the past behind them. Claire, emotionally scarred from a tragic accident, immerses herself in folklore and befriends an elderly woman who writes fairytales. The woman starts telling Claire of her latest yarn, a story about a young woman named Seelie, and the Viking curse, which has befallen the island. Through the course of her story, Claire comes to identify with Seelie and finds emotionally healing for herself. I watched this story because of the premise (I love anything Viking) and was somewhat disappointed. I failed to connect with any of the lead characters, the plot seemed to switch indiscriminately between past and the present, and we never did get to learn more about the "curse." or what exactly was "In the water." Also, the ending was very poorly done. Dunst does some decent acting, though, but even she could not save this flick from being anything but average. Worth seeing for some beautiful shots of Nova Scotia, or for those who like obscure ghost stories... For me, I'll pass on a second viewing.
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