****1/2
Laura gets adopted as a young child from an orphanage and returns years later with her husband (who bears a striking resemblance to Phil Collins) to buy the same mansion, weathered and creaky and creepy from time, so she can help out other unwanted children and “pay it forward” so to speak.
When she’s not preparing the mansion for its reopening she takes care of their son Simon, whom we find out early is also adopted and HIV-positive (ssh! Simon doesn’t know it, though!) I immediately found Simon adorable and wanted to play with him and his invisible friends. But unfortunately things turn mean and nasty -- Simon finds out Laura isn’t his biological mother -- and then things turn creepy as Simon disappears and Laura finds out more about the history of her beloved orphanage than she ever thought existed.
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| Por qué los adultos nos mienten los niños? |
→ Seeing Pan’s Labyrinth before this put anything with del Toro’s name on a pretty high pedestal for me.
→ My “Everyone else loves it, why should I?” contrarian nature. I know, I’ll get over myself.
→ The quick conclusion and denouement didn’t make me emotional and was, I found, a little too mushy/predictable.
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| During Horrorthon, I abandon all hope of a happy ending. |
The mystery of El Orfanato and where all Simon’s invisible friends come from is an interesting one to watch, one I would rewatch in the future in the company of friends to see if I catch any subtleties, but I’m not in any hurry.
5 comments:
Nice review, Crystal. I will also check out anything sporting Guillermo Del Toro's name, even though he's often hit-or-miss. Or he comes through on parts of a movie but makes some dealbreaker errors. I do hope he manages to make Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness into a movie.
Man, everyone watched The Orphanage in 2008! I just noticed that my off-'thon review wasn't on the Monster List and corrected that.
This movie crystallized my feelings about movies that leave it open-ended whether or not there even IS a supernatural in the world of the movie. To whit (yes, quoting myself):
"Unfortunately, this open possibility that it was all in her head and there were never any ghosts -- even as a peripheral, sideline thematic point -- really burns my bacon. You're a movie, for crap sake! Don't tell me it's all pretend -- don't tell me your world doesn't have ghosts. Don't dare to remind me how the real, mundane world can barge in and ruin everything. I don't need the reminder, dummy, I already live here."
Hilarious, Octo! Thanks for quoting yourself because I don't think I saw it yesterday before publishing the review. Also I hate movies that go for the "it's-all-pretend" twist! You're a movie! You're supposed to "go there!" It's supposed to be surreal.
Speaking of surreal and going there I'm just polishing off my review of Antichrist!
Crystal check out The Devil's Backbone, I think it's a great Del Toro film and think you will enjoy it as well.
"You're a movie! You're supposed to 'go there!'"
Perfect. I wish I'd said it that way.
sounds fantastic!
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