Rusalka

Mermaid is an awesomely bizarre tale of a strange girl called Alisa, who, as a little girl, lives by the beach with her comically grotesque mother and grandmother and pines for her father to come and rescue her . Later on in her life she is forced to confront reality when she travels to Moscow with her family, and as a teenager, finds out all about all the wonders of the world, including love, jobs and friendship, all seen through an impossibly optimistic and offbeat sensibility. Mermaid plays like the second coming of Amelie, and everything about it is utterly charming; the fantastically upbeat, jazzy score, the dreamy cinematography tinged with realism, the quirky scenarios, but mostly the utterly charismatic and awesome central performances from the two girls playing Alisa, who like Audrey Tatou before them, will make you fall in love. Alisa is such an endearingly odd character, charmingly offbeat and naive, while remaining startlingly independent and fierce. A last act stumble provoked by a tangle of superfluous characters dampens the charm of the film somewhat,and it meanders in parts, but on the whole Mermaid is an almost note-perfect film that will leave you with a dreamy smile on your face and a longing for days of lost innocence.

Perhaps 'twee' is to Russian films what 'quirky' is to American. Either way it's a sickly confection that demands nothing from its audience other than it checks its brain at the door. One of the most narcissistically irritating heroines since the repulsive Amelie is able to do stuff for some reason. That the role is played by such an unappealing actress doesn't much help but it could have been Hepburn and it wouldn't have survived the director's insistent 'look at me' style and the archness that sucks out whatever life there might have been in the story leaving behind nothing but pretty-pretty photography.

This story was much better done in the 50s in Giraudoux's play Undine which, in fact, introduced Audrey Hepburn in the West End.

For whatever reason, Americans rarely are treated to Russian films, which is probably a great loss... certainly seems so after seeing the film "Mermaid." With a quirky story line and a very compelling opening sequence (great graphics!), it's a combination of incredible acting by the two actresses who play the lead character at different ages as well as the supporting cast and creative directing that make this worth watching. Not wanting to give anything away, I'll just say that my family enjoyed this film very much - but nothing prepared us for the ending. Highly recommend. (I reserved one star because I would have liked to see some creative cinematography of the Russian countryside; nevertheless, seeing Moscow up close in film is a treat.)

In the center of the plot there's a girl who can use magic realism to transform her life and the life of people living around her. But this is just as far as I can get with the comparison to The Fabulous World of Amélie Poulain. Because then comes the best.

In this movie you will face not only the benefits of this power but above all the desperation in it. The alienation in it. And the violence in it.

Turns out to be something much closer to real life, and real dreams and frustrations. It's not sweet, it's just big. Deserves to be watched for sure.

This was a good interpretation. It's the type of movie that I hope opens the imagination to it's viewers and allows you to believe in the unbelievable -if only for a moment. Even though I only viewed this film because it relates to my career field as a mermaid, I liked the feel of the project and can tell this one might have taken a while to plan and come up with. It is more of an adult type of audience more than what you might imagine and if you are hoping for an actual mermaid like in Disney you will be sadly disappointed. Not every film needs to be a replica of the next and this goes into its own direction and interpretation of how to use the word mermaid to tie in it's storyline.