LITERAL REMAINS

Oh, you thought I forgot?  Well, not today.

The Orphanage is one of the best ghost stories committed to film, or probably ever told for that matter.  It’s neck and neck with The Innocents.

Laura was an orphan, as an adult, she and her husband, Carlos, buy the old seaside house that was her orphanage and turn it into a home for them and their son, Simon.  Their intentions are to open the house as a facility for disabled children.

Life in the home has a bumpy start.  A social worker visits, an elderly lady, inquiring about Simon.  He is adopted and HIV positive.  Even after Laura sends the nosy lady away, Laura finds her snooping about in the shed that night.  Mysterious?  You bet.  Creepy?  Any time I find an elderly lady snooping through my shed, it creeps me out.

Then there is Tomas.  Tomas is Simon’s imaginary friend.  Tomas teaches Simon a scavenger hunt game, and Simon in turns teaches it to Laura.  Playing the game together, the hunt leads mother and child to Simon’s adoption file.

During a birthday party, Simon, still incensed, argues with Laura and refuses to attend the party downstairs.  Later, when Laura tries a second time to persuade Simon to join the party, she finds Simon missing.  But she does discover a child upstairs wearing a mask with “Tomas” stitched on his shirt.  This little angel locks her in the bathroom and disappears.  Laura and Carlos then discover that Simon is missing.

What follows is, like I said, one of the best ghost stories you’ll ever watch.  Laura’s search for her son is harrowing, and when she starts seeking help from Tomas and the spirit world, it’s a mother’s desperation verging on madness.  The Orphanage is just a movie that you have to see, because no matter how good I tell you it is, the words just fall short.  It will draw you in and floor you.  Really.

There is a scene, when Laura is all alone in the house, and she begins playing a game she played as a child, well, it just had me on the edge of the seat.

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