El Orfanato
Thursday, April 03, 2008
El Orfanato
Ask any filmmaker and he or she is going to tell you that the most difficult genre of film to make is the comedy genre. It's difficult to craft a film well received by everybody out there, because we all have varying sense of humor, we get tickled by different types of jokes and gags I suppose. A joke that works for this person might not work for the other, just like how showing someone my favorite comedy, A Fish Called Wanda, is probably not going to create the same comedic effects. Anyway, it is difficult for a comedy to be considered as being "great" in my books, and the same can be said about the horror genre to me. I am not sure if it is because I have been conditioned, over the years, to be numbed by the genre. Ever since the xenomorphs freaked me out in the Aliens movie when I was younger, nothing came close afterwards. It is difficult to scare me when it comes to the genre of horror, and the same can be said about El Orfanato, or The Orphanage.
With the name of Guillermo del Toro tagged to the production, it is inevitable for the audience to draw similarities between this production and Pan's Labyrinth. Pan's Labyrinth didn't work for me, I feel that it is grossly over-rated on every count. The horror elements didn't work, neither did the fantasy elements, not to mention the under-developed story line and the boring girl playing as the lead. Guillermo del Toro isn't in the director's chair this time around, but I had my doubts when I saw the trailer for the very first time. Still, Naz strongly recommended the film after watching it, so I decided to give it a shot tonight. One thing is for sure, is that this film was definitely better than Pan's Labyrinth, which to me failed to capture my attention completely. With that said, it is not to say that The Orphanage blew me away either.
The story begins with a flashback, children playing in the gardens of an orphanage, and a caretaker speaking on the phone regarding a child named Laura, who was set to be adopted by a family. A few decades later, Laura (Belen Rueda) is married and has an adopted son called Simon (Roger Princep), and they decide to move back into the orphanage where she grew up in, and at the same time use the old orphanage as a home for other needy children. Everything was going fine until an old lady who claimed to be a social worker showed up at her door, calling herself Benigna (Montserrat Carulla). She was the chief suspect when Simon disappeared one day, leaving behind a string of mysterious, like a game waiting for his mother to solve. Things become more complicated when Laura begins to realize that it was more than just a case of kidnap, but an attempt from the old inhabitants of the house to make contact with her. In an effect to find her lost son, Laura decided to play along with the games that led her deeper into the mysteries of the old orphanage.
To call The Orphanage a horror movie would be rather inaccurate, though it is the closest genre type available. This film does not fit into our conventional sense of "horror" in the sense that it has little to no blood or gore involved, save for the scene that involved the bus - those who has watched the film should know what I am talking about. Other than that, everything was pretty mild, and the film stood out from the other conventional horror films by its ability to create the atmosphere, the creepy sensation you get as you peek around the corner, and that shadow in the dark moving without any plausible explanation. This film triumphs in the use of atmosphere to tell a story, which is a great departure from what we have been used to over the years, being overexposed to sawed off foot and other body parts. However, while the film masterfully toyed with our senses with the atmosphere, the majority of the so-called "scares" in this film was still based on he cliche tricks like loud noises, loud music, or just the typical "BOO!", in your face type of scares. Nothing wrong with those, but it just doesn't work on a personal level.
With that said, there were still numerous scenes which I thought were brilliantly done, though they were rather predictable on my part. One of them has to be when Laura is left alone in the orphanage, and she is forced to play the game with the invisible children. The way the camera went back and forth between Laura and the empty room was very well done. That scene didn't creep me out or anything, but I can see how the whole cinema would be screaming in terror simply for the tension built up in that scene. Another scene worth mentioning was probably the part when the medium was walking through the house in a trance, trying to look for the lost children in the orphanage and then finding the bedroom. I won't spoil it for anybody of course, but it sort of reminded me of the scene from Vertical Horizon that involved the videotape and the disturbing noises heard over the speakers. Those were the two scenes that I found to be particularly well done, amidst the other very well executed scenes.
With that said, I felt certain aspects of the film were not very well developed. It is true that the end of the film was purposefully done in a fashion to allow the audience to come up with our own interpretations, but then there were still questions that were left unanswered by the time the credits started to roll. By the time the film ended for me, I was left a little confused because I didn't know what just happened, and that took a little online research to solve on my part. Still, aspects of the film is still a mystery to me, and while I am not the kind of viewer who likes to be spoon fed with answers, I think this was more like a flaw in the story.
In terms of the performance, the film is centered mostly around Belen Rueda's character, Laura. Another character, that of the medium, did freak me out though, especially the shot of her through the night vision camera. I don't think that shot in the film was meant to be scary, but then there is this thing about scenes shot through the night vision camera that scares me. For example, the scene in the underground subway in Cloverfield and the infamous scene in Silence of the Lambs. Anyway, Belen was last seen, on my part, in The Sea Inside, starring opposite Javier Bardem as his love interest. Here we are drawn into the world partially by the efforts of the actress. Belen is anything but unconvincing in this film, moving from a state of skepticism to frustration, and later giving in to powers beyond her own control. It was convincing on her part, playing the desperate mother looking for her son, and the rest of the cast did decently in their roles as well.
Like I said before, it is inevitable for this film to be compared with Pan's Labyrinth, since both films have both fantasy and horror elements in them. Still, I find this film to be more superior to Pan's Labyrinth, simply because the directors very skillfully maintain a certain tension throughout the film, and made us care very much for the fate of the little boy Simon. I couldn't care less about the characters in Pan's Labyrinth to be honest, and I was on the verge of falling asleep in that one, to be honest. Anyway, The Orphanage is by no means a great film. Still, it represents what a film should be these days, and that is one that does not rely on conventionality and norms to keep the audience entertained for the duration of the film. The ending of the film may come off as a little cliched, a little trite to some. But then like the story Laura told Simon at the beginning of the film, I guess some stories just require us to stretch our imaginations a little.
8/10
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