Juan Antonio Bayona: The Orphanage

Director: J.A. Bayona
Writer: Sergio G. Sanchez

Plot:

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend. - IMDB.com

Cast                                                             Character

Belen Rueda                     ...                        Laura
Fernando Cayo                 ...                        Carlos
Roger Princep                   ...                       Simon
Mabel Rivera                    ...                       Pilar
Montserrat Carulla            ...                       Benigna
Andres Gertrudix              ...                        Enrique
Edgar Vivar                       ...                       Prof. Leo Balaban
Oscar Casas                       ...                       Tomas
Mireia Renau                    ...                        Laura nina
Georgina Avellaneda        ...                        Rita
Carla Gordillo                   ...                        Martin
Alejandro Camps             ...                         Victor
Carmen Lopez                  ...                        Alicia
Oscar Lara                         ...                       Guillermo
Geraldine Chaplin             ...                       Aurora

Thoughts:

The film opens top at Good Shepherd Orphanage. One girl is about to be adopted. Her name is Laura. Simone has a bad dream and is comforted by his mother, Laura. The ghosts are trying to communicate with Simon.

Laura is reopening the orphanage for disabled children. Simon has two invisible friends, Watson and Pepe. These are ghosts that he sees. His parents are concerned about his invisible friends. Simon goes to a cave near a lighthouse. Simon talks to his invisible friend in the cave and the mother, Laura sees footsteps where the invisible friend was. Simon doesn't know he is HIV Positive or that he's adopted. He is also on medication.

The seashells that Simon left for his invisible friend to follow him are all stacked by the front door which Laura sees.

Simon tells his mom, Laura, he is not going to get older like his 6 invisible friends. The invisible friends leave clues for Simon to find a treasure and make a wish. He finds some coins in the drawer Laura locks his medical file. They argue and he says he knows she's not his mother. At the welcoming party people wear creepy masks and the children arrive. A kid with a strange sack mask follows Laura and locks her in the bathroom. After getting out she frantically looks for Simon. They can't find him.

At the emergency room Laura is introduced to Pilar, a police psychologist. Carlos gives Laura his Saint Anthony medallion necklace that belonged to his grandmother. He is the patron saint of lost things. She has a dream of swimming in the water. Now in a wheelchair she hears the whistle of one of Simon's invisible friends. The house is haunted.

Simon now has been missing for 6 months. She believes he is still alive. Benigna gets run over by a car and it is revealed she worked at the orphanage and her son was there who was deformed. Laura remembers the same boy who had a sack mask at the party but no one else remembers him.

After talking to a professor he suggests a medium he knows to help her. She visits the house sensing the spiritual presence. She sees five children who are sick and dying. These are ghosts that only Aurora (played by Geraldine Chaplin) can see but they can be heard by everyone. Aurora tells Laura to believe and she will see.

Laura is desperate to reach her son. Carlos thinks the medium put on a show. Later Laura finds skeletal remains in a cabinet in their shed outside. In the bags we are to assume she found the skeletal remains of all 5 orphan children that were there before. Their names were Martin, Rita, Alicia, Guillermo and Victor. Laura knew them as a child. Benigna killed them. That's why she went to the shed, to recover their bodies.

Carlos leaves Laura in the house for two days as asked by her. She tries to make peace for the ghosts in exchange to find her son. She plays a game of tag and sees them physically. There are 4 of them. She gets trapped in a closet which a ghost girl led her there. She puts the door handle in a hole in the wall and opens a secret door to stairs going down.

She finds Simone and he tells her to stay and play with the children. He disappears as if he wasn't there. She finds his dead body. The lighthouse shines a light through the window and she sees herself as a child running outside. His body comes back to life and Simon is alive. The ghosts see Laura and recognize her and say she's grown old. These are the children she knew when she was a child. She tells them a nighttime story. Laura eventually dies and Carlos finds the St. Anthony medallion on the ground as the doors open by the wind or presence of Laura trying to communicate with him.

The movie is good about secrets needing to be shown to make peace with the souls of the dead.

Works Cited:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-orphanage-2007
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464141/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464141/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
http://www.archbishopcurley.org/about/article/st.-anthony-lost-items