Review by Leonard Norwitz
Blu-ray: New Line Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: 'A'-locked
(as verified by the
Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)
Runtime: 1:45:48.383
Disc Size: 30,719,007,764 bytes
Feature Size: 28,063,752,192 bytes
Video Bitrate: 27.92 Mbps
Chapters: 24
Case: Locking Blu-ray case
Release date: April 22nd, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps
Video codec: VC-1 Video
Audio:
DTS-HD Master Audio Spanish 5586 kbps 7.1 / 48 kHz / 5586
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles:
English (SDH), English, Spanish,
none
Extras:
• 4 Making-of Featurettes:
• When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage
(17:30)
• Tomas' Secret Room (10:10)
• Horror in the Unknown: Makeup Effects (9:20)
• Rehearsal Studio (3:35)
• Still Galleries
• Marketing Campaign (Trailers & Posters)
The Film:
8
The name over the tile is familiar: Guillermo Del
Toro, the man who brought us Pan's Labyrinth,
Hellboy and The Devil's Backbone. Del Toro is the
producer of this ghost story from first-feature-film
director, Juan Antonio (or "J.A." as he prefers to
be credited) Bayona.
Borrowing elements from
Poltergeist,
The Innocents,
Don't Look Now,
The Shining and Somewhere in Time
(have you ever thought of Somewhere in Time
as a ghost story?), Bayona and screenwriter, Sergio
Sanchez, have fashioned an intelligent and capable
piece of work that stands on its own as narrative,
and is helped by a director who cut his teeth on the
music video genre where a knowledge of editing and
art direction comes in handy for this elemental
drama.
Belén Rueda, whom you might remember as Julia in
Alejandro Amenábar's Mar Adentro, is Laura. This is
the first time she has had to carry a film, and
carry it she does. At one point her character is
asked her age. I think she says 33, or something
close to that. Rueda is actually 10 years older and
looks it. I remember thinking that these Spaniards
really live life – they don't hide their years or
their life experience on the faces. Laura should
look ten years older for all she has been through
and is about to go through. She won all kinds of
acting awards for her performance in this film, and
justly deserved. It's just the sort of role the
Academy usually eats up: pained, angry, loving,
sensitive, frightened and brave all at once and by
turns. Bravo!
Laura is about 9 years old when she must leave her
friends at the orphanage for a new home and a new
life. Twenty-odd years later Laura returns with her
husband and their adopted child, Simón (9 year old
Roger Princep in his first movie role). They
purchase the house with the intention of providing a
home for "special needs" children not unlike Simón,
who, as Laura and her husband/doctor, Carlos, are
keenly aware, may not actually be long for this
world. The house itself is situated above a wild and
beautiful beach, and watched over by a long-vacant
lighthouse.
Not content with ingredients enough for a handful of
ghost stories, Sanchez and Bayona introduce twists
and turns that would be the envy of a ride at
Disneyland. For starters, Simón is at an age where
he still entertains himself with imaginary
playmates, much to the chagrin of Carlos, some of
whom Simón brought with him from wherever they lived
last. But one of them is new. As Laura regales Simón
with Barry's Peter Pan and Wendy, we are not all
that surprised to learn that Tomás was once a child
who lived at the orphanage many years ago. But is
Tomás a good Pan or an evil one? What is his agenda,
and does it involve anyone else at living there now
or, for that matter, anyone else living? Alas, the
answer, it turns out, is not all that simply told,
though we can be thankful that this is not one of
those "things are not as they seem" movies. We are,
at last, rewarded by our commitment to solving the
mystery. And, like the Henry James' story, it even
has a moral.
Image:
7/9
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
(I am starting a new scoring system for the Image
with this review in order to have the first number
rationalize with the other scores.): The first
number indicates a relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray discs on a ten-point
scale. The second number places this image along the
full range of video discs (both Blu-rays and DVDs.)
Of the questions that must confront a director of
such a tale, two of the most important must be: the
overall look of the film and especially the house,
and how the ghosts will manifest. Should they appear
as real, translucent or, perhaps, imaginary? Who
should see them? Should it be clear to us who is
real and who is not, who is living and who is dead?
I shall only say that the solution taken by Bayona
is very unlike Shyamalan in The Sixth Sense.
Carrying this line of thought into the DVD image,
should there be some enhancement or other digital
technique to create a sensation of fantasy? What
about digital noise reduction that can leave an
imprint of a fine dust on the image? Even if its
intention is otherwise, might such a tool add to the
effect, or does it get in the way. I am usually
sensitive to DNR, but less so in this film for the
reason just stated. Also, I felt no need to have the
DVD image utterly transparent, as it may have been
in the theatre. In some ways in this movie, murky is
good.
There is an extended episode in the movie that is
seen via some of the lowest-fi live video feed
imaginable. The intention is to add to the illusion
of unreality as the medium wanders through the house
looking for spirits. But aside from that, most of
the movie is quite sharp, if deliberately
desaturated, regardless of location or time frame.
As for matters of contrast, the image is spot on.
Blacks have good shadow information, just enough to
keep us worried as Laura and Simón wander through
house, cave, or "out there". I wish I could say the
same for edge enhancement, which can be observed
along the occasional vertical edges of buildings
against the sky. I can't really fathom the thinking
that authorizes this sort of business on DVD - HD or
SD. Its intended audience couldn't really care less,
so why should the rest of us suffer?
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio & Music:
10/8
What's a ghost story without atmospherics – not just
intriguing art direction, but really scary sounds.
The uncompressed DTS HD Master Lossless audio track
has that – and more; It has space. Empty, scary
space. The space that Laura and the children, living
and dead, play in. This space is not realizable in a
standard DTS or DD 5.1 mix because the overhang of
every sound, great and small would simply obliterate
the illusion. The atmospherics outside the house and
the noises within are all fabulously realized – and
fully demonstrate what can be achieved in this
medium.
Operations:
8
While not taking advantage of any motion
possibilities within the menu proper, every page is
readily understood. Let's hear it for the Top Menu,
which permits easy return to whatever menu you came
from previously – very handy when you're knew deep
in a Bonus Feature and you want to get out.
Extras:
5
The Extra Features for the Blu-ray edition are the
same as for the SD DVD, and not even the trailers
are in high-definition. The image quality is not of
very high quality even taken into account its 480
origins. There are several brief making-of segments,
totaling some xx minutes, that take a peek at
production design, makeup, digital effects,
rehearsals, casting and music. The Still Galleries
are nice, if you like that sort of thing. At least
they're clear, abundant and nicely framed.
Bottom line:
8
Keeping in mind that The Orphanage is a ghost
story, not a horror movie, it works on that level in
terms of visuals and audio. The ghosts are revealed
as neither diaphanous nor as particularly
frightening. They themselves, do not leap off the
screen with axes and knives. It is enough that the
protagonist imagines the worst, and often is not
disappointed in that. The uncompressed DTS HD audio
mix is nothing short of fantastic and is ample proof
of what Blu-ray is all about.
Leonard Norwitz
June 6th, 2008
Revisited: April 16th, 2010
