Not what you might expect; approach with an open mind and an open heart

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2008)

Although based on a fairly well-worn supernatural premise, The Orphanage (2007) ultimately has a deeper, more interesting theme rooted in the ideas of grief and psychological turmoil; which for me, makes the experience a more rewarding one. Arguably, it can still be approached as a conventional ghost story - what with its great atmosphere and a handful of effectively creepy sequences recalling the characteristics of recent supernatural thrillers from Japan and North Korea - but ultimately I feel that the central premise - pertaining to loss and emotional disconnection - is the one that is most interesting and ultimately more satisfying; especially when it comes to tying together some of the film's more distracting, thematic loose ends. Certainly, for many viewers it will be considered a flawed film - one that occasionally collapses under any kind of close narrative scrutiny - but again, I think these flaws can be overlooked if you approach the film with the right kind of attitude and the right frame of mind.
For me, The Orphanage is a film that works best in the early hours of the morning; post-midnight if possible, when your imagination is more flexible and the potential to be stirred by the film's creeping mystery and evocative atmosphere will be at its absolute strongest. Again, as with many of the recent horror films coming out of Asian, such as The Ring (1998) and Premonition (2005), The Orphanage takes ideas that focus on the notions of morality, guilt and religious belief, and applies them to a supernatural concept that is then further adapted to a narrative of investigation. We can see a similar idea in the recent Kilometre 31 (2006), in which the audience are involved alongside the characters in attempting to work out the true cause of this seemingly inexplicable horror. It works fantastically well, with the director really instilling the film with the most amazing atmosphere that seems pitched somewhere between the floating ambiance of the Lucile Hadzihalilovic film Innocence (2004), the reflective melancholy of Victor Erice's masterpiece The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) and executive producer Guillermo del Toro's own great film, The Devil's Backbone (2001); drawing us into the story and compelling us, much like the central character, to get to the bottom of this enigmatic mystery.
SPOILERS FOLLOW However, halfway through the film we begin to get the impression that The Orphanage isn't going to be a conventional horror film in the Hollywood sense (and why should it be?); with the emphasis on the character of Laura and her adopted son Simón suggesting something that goes beyond the more conventional haunted house approach of films like The Haunting (1963) or The Others (2001). The presentation of grief and the mirroring between Laura and the mysterious old woman who turns up on her doorstep suggests an interesting duality on the notion of motherhood, and in particular, of mothers pushed to extreme lengths for the preservations of their sons. Alongside this notion, we also have a self-aware reliance on references to Peter Pan; with the boy that will never grow old and the girl that returns as a much older character, trying to recapture that magic and the sense of imagination that she had put behind her so many years before. This is an important part of the film, as it implies that Laura could have avoided the tragedy if only she'd been able to see through Simón's childlike abstractions for what they truly were.
Ultimately, if we pick apart the plot, the film can be seen to have no such supernatural elements. Everything is explained, with Laura's continual slip into psychological delusions and her eventual reliance on prescription drugs to help her overcome the grief of losing her child allowing the ghosts of the past to manifest themselves in the midst of her imagination. We never see any ghosts in the film, and the lengthy sequence with the team of psychic investigators is most likely a ruse created to dupe both the character and the audience into believing that there is something else to the mystery beyond the psychological breakdown of our central protagonist. Likewise, the ending of the film certainly isn't a twist as some viewers might suggest, with the eventual revelation being hinted at throughout, even spelling things out explicitly towards the very end; with the true "horror" of the film being the suggestion that the mother herself in responsible for the death of her son, sending the film off into the realms of imagined fantasy during the final ten to fifteen minutes. In fact, I'd go as far to say that The Orphanage is perhaps the greatest film ever made on the subject of grief and an absolute masterpiece when viewed within this more persona and psychological concept.
END OF SPOILERS Regardless of any such personal interpretations, the film works simply because it refuses to attach itself to either explanation; so it could be supernatural or merely psychological. The film remains enigmatic enough that the audience can draw their own conclusions, though for me, it still works best at the level described above. The film won't be to all tastes, with many allowing classifications of genre or the spectre of popular opinion to sway them in the expectation of something that the film could never realistically guarantee; while many will simply balk at the more illogical or inscrutable elements that seem to work on a more emotional level, again, pertaining to the central character. It is also worth mentioning that the lead performance from Belén Rueda is an absolute revelation - and far beyond what we might normally expect from a performance in a supernatural film - as she instills Laura with an entirely believable pain and desperation that sees her spiral into the more imaginative and enigmatic moments of the film's final act.