Spanish Slop

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2011)

Within ten minutes THE ORPHANAGE tells us its going to be standard fare with standard devices: Return to a childhood haunt with issues, child to perceive ghosts adults cannot, spooky old person; we've seen it a gazillion times, The ensuing story, plot, etc., is done well enough, with appropriate scares, shots, etc., and is at times entertaining (the seance scenes, however, too loaded with dialog manure). On the other hand there's nothing particularly new or note worthy. THE ORPHANAGE might otherwise get a passing grade except...........
The Spanish woman cast in the lead role was an awful choice. Her character admits to being 37, her IMDb bio has her at 42 but she doesn't look a day less than 50, which still might be okay except.........her maternal skills are cold fish. In the scenes with her "son" I see a woman who doesn't like and/or is unfamiliar with kids. Robin Williams would have been better placed in the role.
The creepy old lady's role is ill defined and makes little sense. In the past the heroine and hag are at most 20 years apart but later it looks like this age difference has doubled. Apparently decades ago the hag was able to poison five kids and stuff their bodies away without anyone missing them at the time. Hag inexplicitly then develops a need to recover the bodies for some reason (Hag must have seen THE ORPHANAGE before it was made and learned heroine would develop the psychic skills to find the remains).
PAN'S WHATCHAMACALLIT was good work. THE ORPHANAGE is not.