The (Very Late) ORPHANAGE Review

I FINALLY saw The Orphanage (hold your applause until the end, please.)

Wow, what a haunting film. I can't think of a movie I've seen recently that touched so many emotions in me. Maybe PAN'S LABYRINTH was the last. This film held true to my expectations of a creepy ghost story - but it delivered so much more. In the last twenty minutes, the film elevates itself above the typical haunted ghost story into a work of art depicting insanity, fear, grief, and hope. This is a very powerful film.

****** SPOILERS *********

A couple of notes:

I've noticed that ever since I've become a father, it is much more difficult for me to watch a young child die on screen. It is especially difficult for me when the child dies alone - as was the case with Simon. The vision of Simon - dead on the cold floor of that basement - haunts me still this morning.

Also, it bothered me that Laura committed suicide. I just felt it cheapened her story - a convenient plot device, but not something that I held entirely true to her character. After all, Simon was going to die anyway at some point - that was clear from his illness. And it bothers me when seemlingly noble characters take this "selfish" route (it rarely seems like a tragic act to me anymore). Laura gets rewarded for killing herself by reuniting with her son and finding happiness. I would have preferred an ending where Laura simply died from grief. That is a more tragic ending to me, and a much more noble death.

I Haven't Seen THE ORPHANAGE - What Is Wrong With Me?

I made a painful admission to some friends on the DTF boards not too long ago - I haven't seen THE ORPHANAGE.

Their response:

WHAT?? YOU?? MR. DELTOROFILMS??

I know - it is sick. And you'll really think I'm weird after I tell you why...

First of all, I have a legitimate reason why I missed it in theaters. I wanted to take my wife to see it, so we scheduled ahead - two weeks after the U.S. release date. Got a babysitter and everything, then - POOF - it was gone. Just like Kaiser Soce. Can't imagine why it was out of my local theater so soon. Actually, I can - the word "Foreign Film" is a bad word to theater owners.

So I missed a chance to see it in the theater - but its been out on DVD for a while now, right? So what's the problem?

Here's the thing - I'm not obsessive compulsive. Not much anyway. I mean, sometimes I obsess about germs, but just little stuff, like when I exit a bathroom, I grab the most uncommon part of the door handle possible to avoid bathroom germs. That's not that weird, is it? Some people open a bathroom door using a paper towel - or worse, I've seen people flush a toilet with their foot (Gross!! Don't they know that if you are at a urinal, you are likely to be standing in urine drippage prior to said foot flush??)

Anyway, here is my other obsessive compulsive tendancy - I HAVE TO WATCH MY NETFLIX MOVIES IN THE ORDER THEY ARE ADDED TO MY QUEUE.

Let me explain to those of you who don't subscribe to Netflix. You select movies you want to watch from their website. Those movies go in a queue in the order that you select them - each new movie you select goes to the end of the queue. Then Netflix mails them according to your queue order.

So when I put THE ORPHANAGE in my Netflix queue, there were other movies in front of it! I have the option of moving THE ORPHANAGE to the top of my queue, but I CAN'T DO IT!! Something holds me back - it is as if shifting my queue order will rain down fire and chaos into my movie watching world. I can't explain it. But alas, it has greatly delayed my ORPHANAGE viewing - a review will come soon...right after I watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR, THE MIST, MICHAEL CLAYTON, and FUTURAMA THE MOVIE: BENDER'S BIG SCORE.

I'm sure many of you out there have quirks like this - please share them!