Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/25/2003 Run time: 94 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49683 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2001-06-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

From the Back Cover
A touching Showtime family drama, MERMAID stars Jodelle Ferland as Desi, a young girl who has recently lost her father. Struggling with his death, Desi writes him a letter and attaches it to a balloon, hoping that the letter will reach him in heaven. It doesn't, but the balloon does land in a town named Mermaid where a man and his family find it and decide to answer the letter. Featuring an enchanting performance from the young Ms. Ferland and an equally moving turn by Ms. Burstyn, MERMAID is an excellent film about coping with loss and the need for small miracles.

Customer Reviews

a moving, human drama
Except for the terrible cover and a killer of a title, this is an excellent movie. But it's not for everyone. If you like action, explosions, car chases, etc., this is NOT the movie for you.

The death of her father has put a 5-year-old girl into such shock that she refers to herself in the third person. She believes her father doesn't come home because she has done something bad and he won't forgive her. (The portrayal of this child by the child actress is nothing short of amazing.) How she is cured and the kindness shown to her, not just by those around her and by a distant family, but by the public at large is one of the most moving sequences on film. If you're not into human kindness or refuse to believe it exists, stay away from this film. But if you believe there's still hope, this movie will show you, you're right.

mermaid
I thought that this film was very heartwarming. A young girl loses her father when she is four years old. Her mother obviously distraught was left to care for her alone, with the help of her mother and some friends. The little girl loved mermaids. Because the little girl didnt understand where her father had gone, her grandmother told her that she could write a letter to him, which they attached to a balloon. the balloon floated away and landed by a lake known as Mermaid lake in Mermaid City. A hunter found the letter and took it home, showed it to his family and decided to write back. The little girl recieved the letter later on and went to visit this family. They became firm friends. Meanwhile the mother became quite close to an old friend, whihc may have turned into a romance.
Overall i loved this film it was very sad but had a nice ending and was based on a true story.

A great and touching movie
The only mermaids in the TV-movie are the ones on the balloon and in the book, but the story is based on a real event.

Very loosely modeled on Hans Christian Andersen's original "The Little Mermaid" (not the Disney version), the film depicts in fanciful fashion the attempt of a small girl to communicate with her dead father in heaven by attaching a note to a balloon with a mermaid pictured on it. The balloon is carried on the wind from California to St. Edward's Island in Canada, and the people who find it respond to the girl's message. The cast is well-chosen and the film is touching without being mawkish.

It is pleasant to imagine that mermaids and angels exist in the light beyond death.