The Secret of Roan Inish

I was fortunate to have seen this movie young. This is an extraordinary movie about a young girl who goes looking for her baby brother who was taken away by the sea. Despite the fact that there is no actual magic that happens in the movie, this is one of the most magical movies I've seen.

The girl's name is Fiona and she goes to live with her grandparents for a while because her father is too busy with work to care for her. While with her grandparents she visits an island her family used to live on, also, the island where her younger brother was taken away by the sea. She snoops around the island and catches glimpses of a small boy she suspects to be her brother. as it turns out selkies have taken him away. So the girl, with the help of her cousin, begin to make the abandoned houses on the island habitable again so that they can move back, thereby getting the girl's brother back from the sea. This film is subtle, yet superbly effective in giving you that evanescent, magical feeling. The use of storytelling is capitalized upon as the primary means of introducing the girl to stories of selkies and to the history of the island and the people on it. So many movies try to capture that evasive 'something else' but end up being fake and cheesy but this one makes the cut. The soundtrack is amazing as well. A great collection of celtic folk music.