The Orphanage
Long time since I wrote a movie review, but this one was so good that I had to review it.
Spain has certainly seen great output of films in the last few years. Volver was brilliant and emotional. Pan's Labyrinth was unique, dark and fanciful. This latest masterpiece comes from Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro's protégé Juan Antonio Bayona: El Orfanato, or The Orphanage in English.
Orphange is a supernatural thriller dealing with the afterlife touching on what we know as a doppelgänger (hinted at briefly in the film). It was well crafted without ever falling into the sort of clichés we're so used to in films of this sort. There were times I felt a clichés coming on only for Bayona to dismiss it right out for something deeper.
The eponymous orphanage of the film was home to the protagonist Laura as a child. It is a fairly grand 19th Century mansion overlooking a gorgeous beach with a lighthouse perched atop a craig. The vistas shown in the film are spectacular and definitely urges me to visit Spain in the near future. The multilevel dwelling housed six children and a few nurses on staff.
Laura was adopted at an early age and later in life returns to the orphanage with her husband and son Simón to reopen the mansion to children with special needs. Very shortly upon their residency Simón has found friendship in invisible children, which is brushed off by his parents as loneliness. But just as they're ready to open the home up, Simón disappears suddenly, sending the family, and country into a frenzy to find the missing boy. After months of searching, Laura begins to fear the invisible friends were not so imaginary.
The pacing and musical score of Orphanage give it a very eerie feeling, but also takes time to touch on the emotional turmoil within this mother. While situations and circumstance grow increasingly tense, she is ever so eager to find her boy.
At this point I will rate the film and then continue on with my thoughts as they may or may not contain spoilers. 4.5 stars for brilliant delivery, acting, sound and visuals.
The Orphanage is a subtle take on Peter Pan. I know it sounds odd, but that's what I've found. Early in the movie Simón is reading the book and asks why Wendy didn't go back to Neverland. At the end of the movie is pulled from Peter Pan when the children realize it is Laura "all grown up." If you remember the story of Pan well enough, Wendy is in an orphanage herself and later runs the orphanage. Bayona is making Neverland the afterlife where you never grow old. He also explains that when you are near death's door you are more receptive to seeing the other side, so we can say Wendy's previous journey to Neverland was from a place of serious illness. Not only is it a great story by itself, the parallels add to it another level of intrigue and wonder.
