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Good things often come in surprisingly small packages, and this Canadian export is a very small thing indeed: a low budget sleeper describing the private world of Polly Vandersma, the 'organizationally impaired' Person Friday and part-time assistant for the curator of a high-brow Toronto art gallery. Painfully shy, prone to daydreams and distraction, socially inept and insecure, Polly is a simple person attracted to what she calls 'art things': obscure painting, modern architecture, the oblique language of intellectuals. It's a world she's not well equipped for (to say the least), and after developing an innocent crush on her curator boss she learns the hard way exactly how cold the world of 'art things' can be. Her story is both poignant and funny, built around the framing device of Polly's odd, confessional video diary, in which she recounts the one, glorious moment in her otherwise negligible life when she broke free of her shell. But the real secret behind the fragile charm of the movie is Sheila McCarthy's disarming star performance, capturing all of Polly's clumsy optimism and curiosity. Originally shown with 'Paradiso', a long (long) animated wet dream from the Age of Aquarius.

I first saw this Canadian film when it was released in 1987. I was a college undergraduate, and the film has never left my memory since then. The movie is original, startling, lovely, hilarious, and thought-provoking.

It's a shame that it hasn't been made available on DVD, but I read on the director's official Web site (patriciarozema.com) that Miramax Films is going to re-release the movie. That's exciting! Perhaps they'll also release it on DVD. (Miramax, if you're reading this -- put it out on DVD!)

If you ever have a chance to see this film, see it.

The wonder of this film, like one of the paintings it features, can't be described in words. It is pure magic in the most abstract form! One can't help but adore Polly's originality (Sheila McCarthy). This is a fantastically crafted and acted film. It will trigger your imagination and place a smile on your face. After the film is over, you won't be able to stop dreaming. I can't watch it enough! It is very sad that it is no longer in print (at least last I checked) and I am very lucky to have purchased it in the Laser Disc format when I did. I have been a fan of this film since I was 20 and am still a fan 14 years

This is one of the two simple films about art that made deep impact on me even after all these years since their releases.

Patricia Rozema's "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" deals with the subjectivity of art which is always relevant in any context. The master's childish art is readily being celebrated and consumed like fast food while the amateur's masterpiece is undiscovered but remain sacred. It reminds us to keep true art away from the corruption of consumerism.

Victor Erice's "The Quince Tree Sun" is probably the most boring film you'll ever watch, but just as the artist finds it impossible to capture the shifting sunlight, we realize it is no longer important to finish a piece of painting, if at all it is possible, as art is in the process not the result. We consciously experience the passing of time while watching the film! Brilliant.

Both films allow art to be taken to a different level, beyond the reaches of commercialism and physicality.

It just didn't move me. This movie clearly has a cult following. I rented it in the DVD re-release format. The acting was forced. The blocking resembled a bad high-school play. And I just wasn't moved by it. I would like to meet the people who remember this movie so fondly when it was first released in 1987 to learn more about why they liked it.

Sheila McCarthy shines in this exploration of the imagination, the artist and the self.

It is one of my top ten films of all time because of its originality and ,of course, McCarthy's offbeat and touching performance. She creates something truly original that has not been matched in a female comedic performance since.

Direction is crisp, unexpected and magical. One can see why it was given a standing ovation at Cannes.

It is one of the few films that can me on a pure emotional level..appealing to the misunderstood individual.

Anyone who has felt like they don't fit in will love this movie. Be sure to watch the closing credits to the end.

Now On DVD with Rozema's commentary.

One of my top ten favorite films of all time, this is beautifully put together- I can't fault the film in any area, other than its not been released on DVD yet. This is easily the best film to come out of Canada, and Patricia Rozema will have a hard time bettering it. The whole movie plays like an ethereal dream with occasional lapses into consciousness. There are some very funny pieces, and some touching moments too. If you ever rent or buy a film because of a review on here, let it be this one, its totally brilliant, and one of the only films ever to be given a standing ovation by the critics in Cannes when it was first shown.

Truly magical.

This canadian masterpiece staring Sheila McCarthy is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. McCarthy's character will touch young starving artists in many ways. The film which is very low key has some amazing scenes that keep your eyes on the screen and your mouth wide open. I feel this movie is very misunderstood by some critics. It cannot be taken too literally. the "daydream sequences" are just that, daydreams. They are there to show you polly's (McCarthy) true inner structure. If you can find this movie, and you like artsy movies that make you think, buy it. Don't bother renting it, because you will just end up buying it anyway.

I live quirky. I like characters that don't quite fit the world around them. But this would be a generous characterization of the scattered, not very interesting protagonist whose fantasies don't really tell us much about her. As it happens, there is a kind of plot here, but it's all the less convincing for the protagonist's irritating and not entirely credible behavior. Some aspects are really jarring - a comic set piece in a Japanese restaurant that looks like a bad, and entirely predictable, routine from a sitcom; the protagonist seriously thinking that the only love that can exist between two women is that for a mother or a sister (!!!). Apparently there's some kind of message here about the relative appreciation of art, but it's lost in side-trips and confused sequences.

I usually don't watch movies more than once. But this lovely film is one that I have regular cravings for. It is so smart, unpretentious, and unassuming. It's subtle and multi-layered and such a treat to view.

It's a quiet film too, with refreshing insights and ideas about relationships. The contemplative pace of the film gives you time to enjoy the ideas and feelings that come up in the characters and in yourself. On more than one occasion while watching the film my breath was taken away with surprise and delight.

I guess another draw for me is the female characters: how refreshing to meet women who are multidimensional, portrayed with authority and authenticity (and having interesting faces I could watch forever).

And I love how the story is so simple, a late bloomer's coming of age (or rather coming into her creativity)--a 'bildungsroman' in a film about art.

Thanks Patricia Rozema et al! What a treasure.

This is a wonderful film. I first saw it back in the eighties and it is still fresh in the mind. The title is a quote from T S Eliot and refers to epiphany. There seem to be a lot of spiritual references. Did everyone else not notice the significance in the older woman being named Gabrielle and the younger Mary? Gabrielle could not create what the earthier Mary could but was her muse. I am not sure of this but Polly in the Canadian accent sounds like Paul-y. The disseminator of the faith? Any comments from anyone? Yes it was small budget but still beautiful. Polly was hilarious. I loved Mary (not that she would be likely to give me the time of day). Check out a book that the actress, Ann-Marie MacDonald, wrote: Fall on Your Knees.

Anybody know where I can get the DVD in London?

What can one say? This is an utterly gorgeous film. It's sort of a cross between 'Brazil' and Woody Allen movies. You can always tell a good director by their choice of background music in their films. This film's director is expert at picking music that adds to the wonderment of many scenes perfectly. Polly the weirdo redhead was one of the great movie characters of the 1980's. You don't just see this film, you live it.

This film was made by artless people - artless writer(s), artless actors, artless cinematographer(s), artless sound, costumes, editor(s), and everything else and all other film folx who should know better.

The only attraction was Sheila McCarthy's hair. I watched it to the end, ever hopeful that this piece if incompetent film-making would have some redeeming feature(s). NONE found. It's simply an amateurish PoS.

I do not understand the positive reviews that others have given, nor the overall high score.

Perhaps the offbeat, somewhat mystical/fanciful nature displayed from the outset held up for those who liked this film. It certainly did not for me.

This is an intellectually ambitious film about meta-art: What is the relation between an art object and intense aesthetic experience? What is the value of the art object if it is devoid of the cultural "frame"? How are certain people legitimized to confer value upon art objects?

The film deals with big questions. Even so. Its main character is someone who is so endearing that you care very much about what happens next. It counts as an offbeat "warm 'n' fuzzy" flick. The humor is both deft and sweet.

As someone who teaches at a college, I think this would be a very *teachable* film. Use it to raise and illustrate these questions in an aesthetics class, or in a class discussing the creation/ propagation of artistic canons.

Sensitive, sweet tale with a fair bit of whimsy added. Wonderfully magical.

Wow. There are four rather fine things in this, and one that ruins it all.

First the good. The key role is perfectly realized. Though the supporting actors and the way things are staged are mundane, this actress and the writer/directer created someone memorable. This was Napoleon Dynamite before he was cool.

While dialog and pacing are uneven, the music isn't. It is uniformly apt. The performance and the music alone are just about enough to sustain the thing until the end.

And there's one brilliant piece of stagecraft. Some paintings figure in the plot. These paintings have impressed our heroine who -- it is made explicit -- is our narrator. She describes them as miraculous and when they are shown, they are blank, white glowing rectangles. Until this point, the imaginary and real segments are clearly distinguished, and when we see this clever trick, we move forward on our chair, waiting for what is next.

And the final great thing is the way the thing is structured. In several ways, we are told that this is an artwork that is about artwork and the "message" is both in the story and how the story is told: there are matters of authorship and genuineness; a bit about filming and being filmed; other bits about reality and representations of reality. Hey, we see, this is one smart woman behind this. And we lean ever more forward in the chair, ready to leap.

And then the end hits us with such a banal notion that we are gobsmacked back. Hey! Is that all? All that energy and cleverness to tell us something Art Linkletter or Reader's Digest could (and does)? Jees.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

When I first saw.it in 1987, I was a struggling drama major at Boston University. I had a point of view,a voice but it didn't resonate with the framework.

And so I found Polly Vandersma.

The journey of the artist here is so beautifully set::

What is true art?

Who gives art status ?

What art ensures ?

Who are artists doing art for ?

Does art require real struggle ?

The answers aren't easy.

Enjoy as director Rozema and leading actress Sheila McCarthy explore the extremes of the artist's journey.

For me, the art in the film is Rozema's daring to reveal the pain and anguish

And find the heights.

McCarthy is that serio-comic wonder who brings both to life.