MOVIE REVIEW: THE IMPOSSIBLE

Director Juan Antonio Bayona follows up his critically acclaimed feature debut The Orphanage with this drama set during the 2004 Thailand tsunami, detailing one family's incredible fight for survival. Inspired by actual events. Tom Hollander and Geraldine Chaplin co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hollander, Marta Etura, Sönke Möhring, Geraldine Chaplin

Release Date: Dec 21, 2012

Rated R for intense realistic disaster sequence, disturbing injury images and brief
nudity

Runtime: 1 hr. 43 min.

Genres: Drama

Review:

The Impossible is the type of harrowing experience that has you watching the film through clenched teeth while grasping the arm rest during some of the more intense sequences. It’s a dramatization of a true story but it does an impressive job of giving you an approximation of the destruction that occurred during this tragic event. Bayona masterfully re-creates the tsunami’s impact with the visceral punch of a horrific amusement park ride. Naomi Watts and Tom Hollander do the majority of the heavy lifting on the emotional side. Watts and Hollander share a strong believable chemistry as mother and son. Personally, I can’t think of anybody better at playing emotionally beaten and frayed than Naomi Watts while keeping a quite strength behind her eyes. Watts delivers an unglamorous raw turn; it leaves a lasting impression even though she disappears for the better part of the last act. Hollander matches her every step of the way with one of the best performances I’ve seen by a child actor in years. Ewan McGregor and the 2 younger actors get some small moments to shine and each does impressive work with limited screen time. They get relegated to the background for the most part and the script seems content to use them for some of the more manufactured moments of heart string pulling such as a trifold set of near misses before the final reunion. It’s an issue that becomes more apparent as the film nears its finale. These moments feel out of place and forced even though the story didn’t need to beat you over the head with agony and could have relied on the organic moments of uplifting human drama.

B

Movie Reviews: THE ORPHANAGE

Friday, June 20, 2008
Movie Reviews: THE ORPHANAGE
ON DVD




THE ORPHANAGE

The Orphanage, presented by Oscar-Nominee Guillermo del Toro, centers on a Laura (Belen Rueda from The Sea Inside) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son's imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.

Opened December 28, 2007

Runtime:1 hr. 38 min.

Rated R for some disturbing content

Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Mabel Rivera

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Genres: Supernatural Horror, Fantasy, Horror, Gothic Film

Review:

The Orphanage is an emotionally gripping gothic ghost story of the highest degree. First time director Juan Antonio Bayona, with some help from producer Guillermo del Toro, weaves a wonderfully dark tome using some excellent cinematography and clever devices throughout his film. Bayona creates a thoroughly intriguing scavenger hunt that hooks it teeth into you and grips you throughout. The Orphanage is like a hybrid of The Others, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist and The Shining wrapped in one beautiful gothic shell. Belén Rueda, who at times looks like at younger Spanish Faye Dunaway, deserves huge accolades for her performance as it envelopes the viewer in her torment and ultimate obsession. There are moments in the film where her characters grief is truly palpable. Experienced horror hounds won't find the gory thrills some of the more the current American horror provides and it's not the type of movie that'll have you shooting out of your seat the entire time. It's a slow burn type of movie which uses atmosphere and the locale to its max potential creating dread within the viewer. If I have a minor complaint, its that the movie feels kind of familiar, using conceits and devices that we've seen before, while it reminded me of quite a few films it reminded me most of Del Toro's Spanish film The Devil's Backbone. That being said it's done so well and Belén Rueda's performance is so strong it's hard not to enjoy this ghost story.

A-