A good movie with some weaknesses

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2009)

Well, after having heard much about this film, and after hearing that Guillermo del Toro was backing the project (even though he wasn't really involved with the production that much), I figured I would give it a watch. I have to say that I was quite pleased with it. There were no cheap thrills in the film. All of them stemmed from events happening in reality (or perceived reality). No dream sequences. No scary noises turning out to be a character just sneaking through the bushes.
The only thing that really detracted from the experience in any dramatic way was the ending. Whether Bayona meant to or not, it was very reminiscent of Pan's Labyrinth, in that all of the hopes and dreams of the main character turned out to be false, until death "freed" them from reality (in a sense), and let those hopes and dreams become their afterlife. Not to mention it was just... too happy of an ending for such a dark film, where six disabled and/or disfigured orphans were murdered by one of their caretakers.
Which brings me to another weakness of this film. The character of Benigna. What was her motivation for murdering said orphans? How was it she got the papers on Simon in the first place? And why in the shed scene was she holding a shovel? Most of her scenes didn't make sense. Her only purpose in the film seemed to be to murder the orphans so that they could be ghosts later on, offering no explanation as to how or why it might have happened.
As for the thrills in the film itself, many people here have complained about how hardly any of it is original, and rather just borrows from old classic films such as Poltergeist and Rosemary's Baby. Okay, couple of things here. For one, it's a genre film. Cinema has been going on for an awfully long time, and almost any idea one could think of these days has already been used in the past. For two, when Sanchez first wrote the script, he INTENDED it to be a throwback to those types of films. It's hardly a criticism if it's something the author freely admits doing.
The acting was absolutely fantastic. Belen Rueda did an especially good job as Laura. Her performance was both emotional and evocative. She played her part with great conviction. Cayo was good, but his character was given hardly anything to really do. Chaplin did a superb job as the medium, as well.
All in all, this is a good film, and I would certainly recommend it, but there are definitely a couple of things that could have been done better.