Colin Farrell shines in Neil Jordan's 'Ondine'

"Anything strange or wonderful?" young Annie asks her fisherman dad when he comes home at day's end.

As it turns out, something has happened to him that's very odd indeed.

While out on his trawler, he accidentally nets a mystery woman who, amazingly, is still alive, if the worse for wear. Ondine, as she calls herself, professes to have no recollection of where she came from, although she's clearly fearful of something — and Annie (a sly, precocious Alison Barry) is quick to conclude she must be a "selkie," a creature that changes shape from seal to woman and back again.

For a while, Ondine (Alicja Bachleda) goes along with this. Even Annie's father, Syracuse (Colin Farrell), half buys into it, for Ondine seemingly brings him luck with his catch and her company is sheer relief after a rough marriage to an alcoholic wife (Syracuse himself is a recovering drunk).

Director Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") leans more toward moody mystery than fanciful whimsy in this unlikely tale, shot in misty blue-green colors that make its Irish coastal setting look both beautiful and desolate.

For most of the movie, Farrell is brilliantly on the mark as a man who hardly dares to hope for anything from life. He's kept good company by Barry's tart youngster, battling some serious health issues, and by Stephen Rea in a smaller role (a priest who accepts Syracuse's penitence-free confession-booth revelations at face value).

Bachleda, a Polish actress, is more a pivotal presence than a full-fledged character. Still, she brings a wary, feral edge to her performance. Jordan, who also wrote the screenplay, makes some gentle jabs at small-town nosiness and claustrophobia, even as he spins out the shadowy riddles of the story.

Only in its last lap does the film lose something when it ramps up the action and trades its ambiguities for an over-explicit and not quite plausible plot wrap-up.

Some unintelligible dialogue is a problem, too.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com