"The Orphanage" **** (out of ****)When "The Orphanage (El Orfanato)" opened in Chicago late 2007, I wrote a review on amazon.com and declared it the best film of 2007! Quite a few people thought I was crazy. How dare I like a film that was not as popular as American favorites such as the Coen Brothers' Oscar winner "No Country For Old Men" or Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" or the comedy "Juno". But, for me, 2007 was a year for over-hyped movies. All three of the mentioned films were ones I would describe as good and entertaining but to hear others tell the story these films were masterpieces! The greatest film ever made in the history of cinema! So many people cheered 2007 as a great year. For me it was the same old story. The better films were the ones which went under the radar, got lost in the shuffle. These were smaller independent films and foreign ones. And the best of them was "The Orphanage".
No other film in 2007 really allowed me the opportunity to dwell deep into a character's mindset. Juno may have been cute but what did we really know about her. I was surprised such a simply story of a teenage crush would be so celebrated. In "The Orphanage" we are nearly at all times in the lead character's mind. Everything is based on her fears and desires.
"The Orphanage" is the feature-length debut of Juan Antonio Bayona. He has directed several music videos in his native home of Spain, but his name means little to the rest of the world. The film was produced by Guillermo De Toro, who in 2006, had his film released "Pan's Labyrinth". One of the masterpieces of the year. Because audiences and critics responded so well to that film, the marketing gimmick was to place emphasis on the name Del Toro. If people heard his name they would associate it with "Labyrinth", remembered they liked that film, and if "The Orphanage" is anything like that film, they will probably like this film as well. I can't comment on how well that strategy may have worked, as the film was never a box-office hit, but it has picked up quite a reputation on DVD. It has found a larger audience, which seems to appreciate it. Maybe now so many people will not think I am crazy for my strong appreciation for the film.
Belen Rueda stars as Laura. A woman, who as a child, lived in an orphanage. Now married and with an adopted son of her own, Simon (Roger Princep) Laura wants to go back to that orphanage and reopen it. It is her way to give back what was given to her. Since the couple has arrived in the house Simon tells his parents he has invisible friends. All of them wear sacks over their heads and like to play treasure hunt games with him. Sometimes revealing information his parents wish he did not know.
At the opening of the orphanage Simon disappears. Was he kidnapped? Did one of his friends steal him? Did he run away from home? An investigation happens but with no results on the child's whereabouts. But Laura never gives up. Eventually she turns to the supernatural for help and seeks the services of Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charles) a psychic. Through Aurora she learns many disturbing things about the orphanage and what lurks in these walls.
What makes "The Orphanage" such a compelling story is director Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez are not merely content with providing us with cinematic scares. They give the viewer characters to relate to and situations which seem realistic, at least as far as this story in concerned.
In an interview with Greencine written by Michael Guillen, Sanchez was asked about the origin of his script, he responded by saying "[what] sparked the idea for The Orphanage was [an illustration] on the copy of Peter Pan that I read as a kid. It was [an illustration] of Wendy's mother sitting by the window, waiting for the children to come home." Sanchez feels "The Orphanage" is really Peter Pan told through the mother's point of view. But Sanchez wanted to add another element to his story. His other source of inspiration was the Henry James short story "Turn of the Screw". "I wanted to write a horror film" he says "that could be ambiguous enough to admit a double reading." And "The Orphanage" does give the viewer something to think about. How much of what the audience sees is really happening or all in the mother's mind?
A film such as this, while there are obvious connections to Peter Pan, could simply be described as the story of a mother's love. After Peter Pan, the closet thing which comes to my mind to compare it to is Walter Salles' "Dark Water". There was another example of a horror film which took its time to set up characters instead of throwing cheap scares our way.
When I first saw this film I called it a "magical nightmare". I'll stand by that. We are never quite sure where the film is going to take us. It resembles a nightmare in the way we seem to be headed down a dark, chilly path that may lead us straight to hell. But it is magical in the sense that we are dealing with the unknown. We have entered a world where anything can happen.
I've now seen this film twice. This is one of the few times I was struck more by a film the second time. The film handles the characters so well. We go along with Laura at every twist and turns. Her desires become our desires, her fears, ours. By the end of the film there is such a poignant feel, but, it is not overly sentimental. The film feels complete. The viewer is satisfied. We have went on a journey and survived. The lead character has transformed. And we are different after watching it to.
"The Orphanage" won the top prize at the Barcelona Film Festival, was one of the foreign film nominees at the Chicago Film Critics Award and won several awards at the Goya Awards.
Posts
