I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing 1987

Polly Vandersma Sheila McCarthy works for a temporary secretarial agency and serves as the film’s narrator, guiding us through a world that blends ordinary life with bright, whimsical fantasies. The story follows her quiet, solitary days: she lives alone, has few friends, and rides her bicycle through the city to capture moments with her camera. Despite her clumsiness, limited education, social awkwardness, and a habit of taking others’ words literally, Polly clings to small joys and dreams. Her path leads her to a secretary position in a private art gallery owned by Paule Baillargeon, a place where she hopes to belong even if the fit feels tenuous.

Mary Ann-Marie MacDonald, Gabrielle’s former young lover and a painter, returns after an absence, and the rekindling of their relationship unfolds with a mix of warmth and doubt. Gabrielle’s reticence about aging and the widening gap between years and youth add tension to their renewed bond, creating a charged dynamic at the heart of the gallery’s creative circle.

Polly, who has begun to feel a spark of love for Gabrielle, selflessly tries to share her own photographs by submitting them anonymously to the gallery. The rejection she faces is sharp and humiliating—Gabrielle dismisses her work as “simpleminded.” The blow unsettles Polly, prompting a temporary departure from the gallery and a spell of depression. Yet a glimmer returns when Mary notices one of Polly’s photographs, hinting at the recognition Polly has long sought.

Behind the scenes, an unsettling deception unfolds: Gabrielle has been presenting Mary’s paintings as her own, a fraud that compounds Polly’s sense of betrayal. When Polly finally discovers the truth, she reacts with anger, hurling a cup of tea at Gabrielle in a moment of raw hurt. Convinced she has committed an unforgivable wrong, Polly retreats to her quiet flat, overwhelmed by the break in trust and the loss of a world she hoped to belong to.

The tension eases only when Mary and Gabrielle show up at Polly’s door, acknowledging that the discarded photographs were indeed Polly’s. Their visit marks a fragile reconciliation and a shift in the gallery’s fragile ecosystem, where honesty, talent, and recognition begin to realign the relationships that were once distorted by deceit.

As the film concludes, Gabrielle and Mary revisit Polly’s growing collection of photographs. In a short fantasy sequence, the three of them are transported together to an idyllic wooded glen, a vivid metaphor for the beautiful, overlooked world Polly believes exists for ordinary and unseen people. The ending leaves a resonant sense of belonging and possibility, even for someone who has long felt invisible, suggesting that art can reveal the worth that daily life often fails to acknowledge.