Review of The Secret of Roan Inish

While seeming to aim for the sense of mystery of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock', 'Roan Inish' never rises above the level of a strong TV drama. The problem isn't the central performance of Jeni Courtney as Fiona, which is outstandingly good, or the rest of the cast who must have frozen their assets impressively filming the lives of poor fishermen on the East Atlantic foreshore. More power to them. The kid playing the lost boy Jamie, Cillian Byrne (who didn't trouble the costume department), is also amazing, the way he (apparently) steers that floating cradle; and the scene with the seal and him having 'tea' is tremendous. But essentially this is a children's film, a sort of 'Railway Children' with Irish pipes and seals. Lots of Irish pipes. Lots of seals. Lots of seagulls. Lots of cold-looking water and rowboats. Lots of beaches, grass and flowers. Yet more Irish music. The only real suspense is whether there's a happy ending or not, which I won't give away, but no-one ever doubts that Fiona's story of what she has seen is true. Fair enough, they're simple people who believe in faery folk, but it all seems a bit cut-and-dried in the end. At the beginning, there's too much exposition from blarney-gushing Oirish characters, the late middle segue sequence goes on a bit too long and the pacing tends to slow up towards the end. But it's a genuine, well-made, innocent sort of film that you can safely let your smallest kids watch. The sort of film to rent at Xmas, or Easter. Especially if there's any Irish in you, or you particularly like seals. Much better than 'Ryan's Daughter', btw.