A family friendly charmer that deals with some difficult subjects --lost children, family secrets, the gloomy economic prospects of rural Ireland's small farmers and fishers in the '40s and '50s-- and weaves together myth and reality to make a very believable story. Told from the point of view of the child Fiona --played by the very serious Jeni Courtney-- the "secret" is revealed as a family legend: A many times great-grandfather who was saved from drowning by a selkie who came ashore to live as his human wife but eventually --as selkies always seem to-- returned to the sea. The selkie's love story is interwoven with the modern tale of her human descendants who are forced to evacuate Roan Inish and in so doing lose Fiona's brother. Despite the possibilities for darkness, this is a movie about redemption and second chances.

A good movie to introduce children to one of the enduring legends of coastal Ireland.