Review: The Orphanage (2007)

The Orphanage (2007)
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Cast: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera,
Montserrat Carulla, Andrés Gertrúdix, Alejandro Campos, Edgar Vivar,
Geraldine Chaplin
MPAA Rating: R
BBFC Rating: 15

"The Orphanage" is destined to draw comparison to "The Devil's
Backbone," producer Guillermo del Toro's frightening and atmospheric
2004 ghost story, in which another orphanage is at the heart of
supernatural goings-on involving apparitions of children. Directed by
Juan Antonio Bayona, "The Orphanage" (or "El Orfanato" in it's native
Spain) stands on it's own feet, however, similarities to the
aforementioned spine-tingler extending to the film's steadily
heightening atmosphere and love for dark corners, the story treatment
itself being decidedly different as Bayona - or, more correctly,
scripter Sergio G. Sánchez - takes a traditional-style ghost story and
stands it opposite a similarly haunting tale of a mother's loss. The
end effect is every bit nerve-shredding, but also weighty and
emotionally challenging.

Returning to the orphanage she stayed at as a child, Laura (Belén
Rueda) takes husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and adopted 7-year-old son
Simón (Roger Príncep) to the long-abandoned home with the intent of
opening up a loving home for children with special needs. Something
dear to them, Laura and Carlos' desire to run such a home stems from
the very fact that their adopted son himself has a serious illness
(Simón is HIV-positive). This is unbeknownst to him until Simón
mysteriously discovers the truth and confronts Laura with it, alleging
that he learned that he could die young from a new assortment of
imaginary friends he meets nearby in a cove. Initially dismissive of
his friends' existence (they say to Simón they understand he overheard
about his illness during a conversation between Laura and a well-
meaning social worker), they, or rather, Laura, begin to reevaluate
the opinion that Simón friends are fictitious when he mysteriously
disappears.

"The Orphanage" is as frightening in it's story of Laura's great loss
as it is in the supernatural elements dictating her actions in the
weeks and months following Simón's disappearance. Her desperate
attempt to find her son in the nearby coves in which he met his new
friends is painful to watch, the anguish on Laura's face now that she
has realised her son may have been taken is palpable, and the scene
stays with you just as much as a preceding sequence in which she first
comes face-to-sack with one of Simón's supposedly non-existant
friends, the sack-masked Tomás - whose origins, also, are revealed
over Bayona's film's intoxicating 105 minutes. In fact, as "The
Devil's Backbone" was more about the fascism suffocating a particular
orphanage in Spain with supernatural borders surrounding it's story,
"The Orphanage" is more a terrifying portrait of a mother's probable
breakdown following the unimaginable than it is a tale of haunting and
ghostly apparitions. That "The Orphanage" is such a powerful ghost-
horror movie when it wants to be seals the deal.

As the emotionally crippled Laura, Belén Rueda turns in a lead
performance of astounding, mesmerizing strength. She sells every
emotion that her character feels, bereft of broadness or anything
histrionic as she so believably portrays a woman whose world has been
torn about that it is difficult to watch, if only for all the right
reasons. In a movie of great performances, it is Rueda who
effortlessly steals the show. Which is the measure of the woman, her
central acting outshining that of Fernando Cayo, himself not too
shabby in his role as Simón's father Carlos, who struggles to hold out
the hope that Laura still does as more time passes by without a trace
of his son being found. As said son, young Roger Príncep does very
well. So well that, when he disappears we too wish to understand and
know what has happened to him. Otherwise, Geraldine Chaplin shines in
the few scenes she features as a medium brought to Laura and Carlos'
home to investigate the presences Laura adamantly believes exist in
her household.

Scripted in a way by Sergio G. Sánchez that rapidly confirms
suspicions over the reality of Simón's friends only to keep viewers in
the dark (just like Laura) for the following scenes, "The Orphanage"
majestically unfolds as more details come out about the orphanage's
history, the origins of Tomás and the true identity of the suspect
social worker (Montserrat Carulla) who the authorities insist is not a
known social worker. Sánchez's storytelling is smooth and concise, the
atmosphere growing increasingly foreboding as the minutes tick by and
the plot brilliantly unfolds. The connections made between the
childhood stories of Tomás and Laura, for example, are splendidly
realised, taking the viewer by surprise in their simultaneous
intricacy and mystery.

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayone with a genuine understanding of what
his film sets out to achieve, lensed by cinematographer Óscar Faura
with beautiful, if haunting precision that serves as a gorgeous
aesthetic to an increasingly dark and gritty central tale, and acted
out superlatively by all involved, "The Orphanage" is a horror
triumph. The scariest film that I have seen all year, director
Bayona's rattling film may owe something to producer del Toro's own
inspired works, but it also stands alone as it's own very unsettling
work of horror genius. Speaking as someone who loves a horror movie
done well more than any other genre, "The Orphanage" is a satisfying,
scary film that gets the job done, splendidly well.