Do you ever stumble upon a movie at exactly the right point in your life, like you were fated to fall in love with this heretofore unforeseen discovery on this particular day? I had that exact experience with Song of the Sea, the kind of Serendipity that doesn’t star Kate Beckinsale. Going into the screening, I had never seen the Oscar nominated The Secret of Kells, Tomm Moore’s first animated Irish fable of 2009. I amended that oversight less than twenty four hours after watching Song of the Sea, an enchanting film experience that rivals any other I’ve had this year.

Even without gorgeous animation to bring it to dizzying new life, Ireland is a magical place, a country brimming with folklore, beer and mind-opening beauty. Director Tomm Moore is Hiyao Miyazaki’s Irish cousin. Miyazaki celebrated Japan in a vibrant and lush 2-D environment, and now Moore has taken up the mantle for his European home. He’s a steward of Irish culture that treasures the stories of the past, imbuing them with even greater heart and significance. Along with art director Adrian Merigeau, he’s created a living, breathing picture book in Song of the Sea, an invigorating bed-time story with depth and visual mastery, proof that 2-D animation will never die.

Song of the Sea revolves around the ancient legend of the Selkies, mythological creatures who are barking, adorable seals in the sea, but become dumb ole humans on land, a dying breed commensurate with the world’s fading magicks. A family fractured by grief (this is a mature story very much about coping with pain and loss) is tasked with saving magic (and themselves), and in so doing, retain the soul of Ireland found within the countryside, mountaintops, its shores and the sea, and keep it from being further polluted by the city (a grimy Dublin where faeries must hide in the tangled thrush of roundabouts).

Ben (David Rawle) is a brat; an older brother who bosses his mute younger sister Saoirse (Lucy O’Connell) around like it’s his birthright, just as likely to leash her as his dog best friend Cu. Ben clearly blames her for the death of their mother Bronagh (Lisa Hannigan), refusing to share anything of his mother’s with poor Saoirse, not to mention the attention of Cu, the world’s greatest swimming dog. He gets away with it precisely because their father Conor (the Brendan Gleeson) is still wracked with sorrow, six years later, sleepwalking through parenting and his lonely existence. The family lives alone in a lighthouse on top of an island crag, off the western shores of Ireland, a rickety ferry ride away from society. It’s exactly where you’d want to raise a family (or grow old), except their family is broken, and terrified that he’ll lose Saoirse like he did her mother, Conor ships his children off with Granny (Fionnula Flanagan), the scowling representative of the city.

As Frozen did with sisters, Song of Sea accomplishes with a brother and a sister, one that hits even more at home for me. Before their mother died, Ben promised to be the best big brother ever…and instead, became a tyrant. He’s given a chance at redemption, an opportunity not every sibling gets. As Ben fights to save Saoirse and the very notion of magic, he stumbles through several imaginative worlds, all rich and vibrant enough for their own movie, including a chance meeting with the Dreat Seanachai (Jon Kenny), a kooky Irish hybrid of Merlin and Rapunzel, blessed/cursed with a different story in each strand of hair. There’s even a horrifying owl witch named Macha (also voiced by Fionnula Flanagan, not-coincidentally pulling double duty), similarly haunted by grief, earning her place in the pantheon of fictional owls. In just a few scenes, Macha is given more depth than every Marvel villain not named Loki.

Like Irish culture itself, music plays a massive role in Song of the Sea, with composer Bruno Coulais and Irish band Kila rekindling their collaboration from The Secret of Kells with similarly stimulating results. Song of the Sea is a cascading wave of wit, charm and heart; it made me feel like a kid watching Lion King for the first time. If you’re a parent and don’t take your child to this movie, you’re committing a great injustice. You’ll enjoy the movie just as much as your kids; it’ll be anything but a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the movies.

Song of the Sea makes its U.S. premiere at LA’s AFI Fest on November 9^th at 12 PM at the Egyptian Theatre. It also plays at the Chinese Theatre on November 12^th at 6:45 PM. Reserve your free tickets now! It’s coming to NY December 19^th, and will expand from there.

Over the first twenty minutes of Stonehearst Asylum, you slowly begin to dread watching the rest of the film, thanks to looking and feeling like your typical insane asylum movie. Jim Sturgess’ medical school graduate Edward Newgate has arrived at the mental institution to become an alienist, a Lovecraftian term to describe an asylum doctor. Newgate comes to Stonehearst to learn under the tutelage of the superintendent, and of course, finds more than he bargains for, including the bewitching Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale, her immense beauty in perfect contrast to her drab surroundings and her shaky mental state). Dr. Newgate’s taken with her immediately; cue yawns and eye rolls, even though let’s be honest, who can blame him? Then, thankfully, everything changes quickly and absolutely, thrusting the story in an entirely different direction, succeeding in making Stonehearst Asylum interesting, and letting its substantial cast embrace the insanity.

Surrounding Sturgess and Beckinsale are some of the best actors in the world (including two Sir’s), a truly eye-popping cast. Ben Kingsley is Silas Lamb, the non-traditional superintendent of Stonehearst, who takes Newgate under his wing. It’s obvious there’s more to Lamb and Stonehearst than what we see on the surface, and Kingsley’s commanding and tortured performance is the best in the film. His gatekeeper/body guard Finn is played by a menacing and startling David Thewlis. It’s unnerving to see Professor Lupin embrace his dark side. Michael Caine plays Dr. Salt, a man who claims to be the true superintendent of the hospital. It’s similarly disturbing to see Caine–always so classy, regal, precise—dirty, bedraggled, potentially unhinged. Throw in the great Brendan Gleeson as a clever framing device and vicious alienist, along with several truly disturbed character actors, and you have yourself an asylum packed with talented performers lending themselves fully to director Brad Anderson’s tangled vision. It’s like a movie version of American Horror Story‘s second season without the supernatural; alienists instead of aliens.

Even with all the talent involved, it’s easy to envision a version of this movie that fell flat, and crumbled in on itself. It doesn’t, but it treads a thin line throughout, because Stonehearst is heavy-handed, over the top and features a love story you don’t really believe or want. Of course, it actually works better in hindsight, like much of this movie. Stonehearst Asylum succeeds because of its plot twists. At first we think we’re about to endure a couple hours of unstable patients being pumped full of drugs, electroshock therapy and orbitoclasts. You know, the usual horror movie version of an insane asylum. Thankfully, Dr. Lamb is a proponent of alternative methods, and so is this movie, which feels like a late career M. Night Shyamalan movie with several twists, that somehow succeed in improving the movie-going experience.

It’s no wonder the film didn’t keep either of its original titles, even though Stonehearst Asylum isn’t much better: it’s wholly unremarkable, bland, feeding into your considerable doubts about its opening act. But Eliza Graves, its previous title, implies that Kate Beckinsale’s character is the lead (and she really isn’t, unfortunately), whereas Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” is suitably crazy, but doesn’t work in the context of this adaptation.

It would behoove you not to watch any trailers or previews for this film (I’d argue all movies are better that way but that’s another sermon for another time), because I doubt any of the marketers will be able to control themselves when it comes to giving away precious plot details. I’m struggling not to divulge too much in this review, but suffice to say, Stonehearst Asylum is worth a look, for giving us a different spin on a tired genre, and a mostly worthy adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story. It has its problems (it sometimes feels like the audience is getting a lobotomy), but it’s certainly stimulating.

Stonehearst Asylum arrives in theaters and OnDemand October 24th.