The Orphanage - Open Spoilers

Cafe Society
1

It’s only March, but the best movie I’ve seen this year is “The Orphanage.” I loved this movie. It’s creepy and exhilarating. A really good ghost (?) story / psychological thriller in my opinion. Light on the jump-out-of-your-seat scares, but heavy on the chill-run-up-your-spine moments. The film reminded me of “The Innocents” and “The Others”, but I didn’t find it to be derivative of those. I guess it could be compared to “Pan’s Labyrinth” in that it may leave you wondering how many, if any, of the events were supernatural in nature.

I liked the movie so much that some questionable plot points didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Still, I’d like to open the floor for discussion.

My biggest question concerns the five murdered orphans. Even though the police woman has a newspaper clipping about the death of Tomas (the deformed boy) she never mentions anything about the subsequent disappearance of the five children responsible for his death. It seems like this would have come up in that discussion.

I’m also confused about how Begigna (the mother of Tomas, who poisoned the children) came to have a file about Simon and her motives. Presumably she wanted to kidnap him, but why? His mother had been adopted and left the orphanage before the other children did what they did to cause Tomas’ death, so why would she be seeking revenge against her?

2

It’s been a few months since I saw the film, so my timeline may be a bit off, but it is my understanding that Benigna only became involved when Laura & family moved back into the orphanage and were in the process of renovating it to re-open. Benigna thought that the bones of the murdered children would be found so she had to come back and remove all the evidence that had been hidden away for years. I don’t think it was ever in her plan to kidnap Simon, she just needed a reason to get close to the family. Or perhaps also to create doubt in Laura’s mind about whether she should really stay and open the orphanage or not.
I’m not sure how she actually got the file. She may have been a social worker at one point in her life and had the right contacts & identification needed to swipe someone’s file. I believe the file was not current, so she probably stole it from a past hospital.

I agree with you about the film, btw. The best I’ve seen this year!