The Secret of Roan Inish

(John Sayles, USA/Ireland, 1994)

Let me take pleasure in quoting something mildly heretical. Of the much-loved independent American writer-director John Sayles, the British critic Paul Willemen [1994-2012] once remarked: “His scripts ... look like exercises from a third-rate correspondence course in creative writing: the structure is boringly mechanical, the wit would embarrass an averagely intelligent adolescent and any understanding of social processes depicted in his narratives is, quite simply, absent”.

For my part, I would add to Willemen’s sober assessment only a comment on Sayles’ ability as a filmmaker: the guy cannot direct his way out of a paper bag.

I was bored witless by The Secret of Roan Inish, which plummets right to the bottom of the Sayles filmography alongside City of Hope (1991). Adapted from a 1957 novel by the Canada-born, Welsh-dwelling Rosalie K. Fry (Child of the Western Isles, retitled The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry in 1959), Roan leadenly attempts to spin the supposedly enchanted and enchanting Irish tale of young Fiona (Jeni Courtney) and her pursuit of mystical legends about half-human creatures (known as selkies) from the island of Roan Inish.

This project is certainly a change of pace for Sayles (who is himself Irish-American). It is not a gloomy piece of soft-left, liberal, social realism, nor a pristine, equal-opportunity story celebrating oppressed sectors of the population. Instead, it puddles around in a bit of magical realism, indulging the modern fondness for pre-industrial communities and the oral, folk art of storytelling.

None of this would bother me if Sayles were able to bring the slightest degree of movement, colour, energy or life to its rendering.

He has fine, regular collaborators around to help: the celebrated Haskell Wexler takes care of cinematography duties, and Mason Daring composes a lovely score. But here is a filmmaker so obsessed with so-called craft – with clarity, symmetry and simplicity – that he entirely neglects to inject any art.

Courtney is a poor choice for the lead role: she looks winsome enough, but can scarcely act. Judging from his past efforts, this may have been something that Sayles just could not a decisive grip on as production unfolded.

Indeed, the reason why Sayles is so admired by some film critics and screenwriters may well be because he directs exactly like a critic or a screenwriter: someone who thinks it all out beforehand on the page, rather than finding the right form in images, sounds and performances in process – the form they will have when projected onto a screen. He virtually boasted of this process in a TV documentary portrait of him at his Moviola – he shoots what he writes and then he joins what he’s shot!

As a result, his films simply do not breathe – either in the water or out of it.

MORE Sayles: Limbo, Passion Fish, Sunshine State

© Adrian Martin July 1995