The Orphanage

Well, opening weekend has come and gone - it went fairly well, I guess. I don't really like to talk about the shows that I'm in - if you come and see it and you wanna talk afterwards that's fine for a bit but I just don't get involved in backstage gossip...with people who aren't backstage, at least.

Me and KP went to see the Orphanage last weekend. I really enjoyed it - it was in Spanish with English subtitles. The young woman at the box office, upon hearing our request for tickets, sighed, rolled her eyes, and droned "You know it's in Spainish with English subtitles..." We kinda laughed and said yes, I asked if she'd been plagued with complaints about that. "Some guy came up here and started yelling at me about how if he wanted to read he'd get a damn book!" I couldn't help but laugh.

It's a creepy movie but not a gore-infused slasher-fest like we Americans seem to crave. This is no Saw, to be sure. It's very moody and quiet. We start at an Orphanage (makes sense, right?) where we see children playing a game - the American equivalanet is something like Red Light, Green Light. One of the girls gets adopted and then we flash forward like a decade or two - the girl has grown into a woman with an adopted child of her own. She's married to a doctor and the two of them are going to re-open the Orphanage to care for "special needs" children. It's revealed by the unexpected visit from a creepy old social worker that their child is HIV+ and he doesn't know that...nor does he know that he's adopted. They plan on telling him all of these things but want to wait until he's older. He only knows that he's sick and has to take a lot of medicine. The kid is great - he's very playful and has imaginary friends. He and his mother have a great relationship - they have a game they play in which he gives her three things and she composes a bedtime story out of them.

At some point they head off to the beach and he goes into a cave to explore. She grows concerned and follows in after him to find him talking to someone around a corner. The boy says its a new friend named Tomas. He asks if Tomas can come home with them and the mother says sure. The boy, named Simone - I get tired of writing the Boy over and over again - leaves a trail of shells so Tomas can find them. The mother (Laura) finds the shells all piled up on the door step the next day. I don't want to do a full play by play here - suffice to say that thigns start to go a little wonky. The social worker is found in the middle of the night in their shed. Simone disappears on the day of the grand opening of the Orphanage. That kid in the picture above with the creepy sack-head begins to cause mischief. A grand quest breaks out - the ghosts that haunt these halls like to take your treasure and leave you clues. One clue leads to another until you finally get your treasure back and then you're allowed to make a wish. Well, you can imagine what Laura's treasure is and she goes through all sorts of trials and tribulations in order to find it. In the end she finds her treasure and gets her wish - but not in the manner you'd expect. I loved the ending - it couldn't have ended more perfectly for me. This should be avoided by those who 1) don't like foreign films because "reading is hard" or 2) want a sugary-sweet everyone gets to be happy ending.

This weekend - CLOVERFIELD!!!