The Orphanage

The Orphanage is a respectable and chilling Spanish supernatural thriller, but it is slightly disappointing. The trailer promises perhaps a classic supernatural flick, and lately there has been a boom in great crossover Spanish language films. 

But The Orphanage is really just an exquisite imitation of other, better films. It shares much in common with the underrated ghost film The Others (2001), and it has some elements of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Poltergeist thrown in. It's nowhere as visionary as Pan's Labyrinth (which was made by The Orphanage executive producer), and it is not as well acted or charming as Volver.  

The Orphanage is about a woman named Laura who comes back to the orphanage where she spent her childhood. It turns out that she has a sensitive, son who has HIV. He is able to see ghosts, and the theory is that he can perceive the dead because he is closer to death.  

The specters seemingly have a sinister agenda, and when her son disappears, she does everything in her power to get him back. Her possessiveness harms her marriage and eventually her husband can't take it and he leaves. He gives her a few days to figure out the mystery. I guessed the "secret twist" fairly early. 

Despite its lack of originality and predictability, The Orphanage is beautifully shot, and it works on its own terms. 

It’s infinitely classier than most of the junky scare flicks and demoralizing trash that typically attracts huge numbers of viewers in America (such as Saw or Hostel) I'd rather see a modestly successful supernatural art film than a slasher film any day. 

The Bucket List

Sweeney Todd

If a visual knockout about an 18th century London barber who finds solace in slitting the throats of his customers and disposing of the remains as filling for the meat pies of his landlady sounds too gruesome for holiday family viewing, consider catching Alvin and the Chipmunks instead.  At least the five and under crowd will be amused.   There isn't a whole lot this season that the whole family will like, and this film version of Steven Sondheim’s 1979 Broadway hit Sweeney Todd is probably as good as it could be for a big screen treatment of a project that really is most at home on the stage with well trained singers. 

That said, Tim Burton’s wacky vision and a fine cast led by Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter give it their best shot and elevate this film version above the ranks of the mediocre that so often befalls hit musicals (Phantom of the Opera was a washout, and even Chicago lacks staying power.)  Burtons' dark spin on Sondheim’s dark tale about a fictional mass killer results in a pretty interesting film. 

Angela Lansbury put Mrs. Lovett on the map almost three decades ago and Sweeney Todd scored a major hit a few years ago at Lyric Opera of Chicago with the mighty baritones of Bryn Terfel and opera hunk Nathan Gunn, so if you're looking for voice-driven musical virtuosity, look elsewhere.  However, if the eye-popping visuals and Burton’s wacky trademark style is your cup of tea, you'll find they render all the throat slitting palatable and offer some moments of great fun and touching pathos.  Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic turn as Sweeney's rival barber is not to be missed and the foray to the seaside is playfully bizarre.  All the cast members do their own singing and would not have had it any other way. The irony in Todd's revenge-seeking on the man (deliciously malicious Alan Rickman) who ruined his life and destroyed his family works on our heads and hearts.  

Vengeance is Mine, an underrated and chilling Japanese classic, is playing at the Gene Siskel Center on Saturday, January 19 at 3:00 pm and Wednesday, January 23 at 6:00 pm. 

It's part of an entire film series featuring works by the recently deceased cinematic giant, Shohei Imamura, who made many great films including  The Insect Woman (1963),  Ballad of Narayama (1983), The Eel (1997), and Dr. Akagi (1998). All of them are being shown in the series. 

Along with Nagisa Oshima, Masashiro Shinoda, Hiroshi Teshigahara and others, Imamura was part of a new group of radically experimental film makers that emerged in Japan in the late '50s and '60s.  

Imamura's films were symptomatic of newfound freedom in 1960s Japanese film. He broke the unstated rules of film content for Asian films. Instead of focusing on samurais and genteel codes of family behavior, he told modern stories about the seedy side of Japanese society (Imamura had many friends in his college days that were thugs and prostitutes).  

His films also included generous amounts of sex and violence. Also unlike many previous Japanese film makers, Imamura's female characters were flawed and earthy, and they were never put on a pedestal. 

Vengeance is Mine (1979) is a documentary-like film that dramatizes the short killing spree of a sociopath dubbed Iwao. His actions are clearly linked in the film to the loss of traditions and the breakdown of the nuclear family in Japan, but this does not completely explain his heinous actions. 

The film begins with Iwao's capture, and most of the story is told in flashback. We see Iwao's troubled relationships with his neglected wife and a victimized prostitute who is willing to die for him. It turns out that Iwao's depravity is linked to anger he feels toward his hypocritical Catholic father. 

Iwao's alienation and depravity is so extreme that he is a total outcast. But he is able to successfully impersonate "respectable" members of society, such as lawyers or professors, before he commits his crimes. First he gains the victims' trust, and then he robs and brutally kills them. His fascinating dispassion and complete lack of empathy in the film make him reminiscent of the killers in No Country for Old Men, as well as In Cold Blood, and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. 

Imamura refuses to moralize or over psychoanalyze, and his film's ethical ambivalence will make the film hard to view for some. But the film qualifies as a depraved masterpiece. Rarely has a film allowed viewers to probe as deeply into the mind of a killer. 

As in Tokyo Godfathers, director Satoshi Kon brings us another adult animated film, with an even more challenging theme. With state of the art graphics that mix our thoughts, both dreaming and while awake, we explore the things that give us pleasure and frighten us beyond words. 

Paprika captures the nature of our dreams and how they can shift shapes and imaginings in ways that are so frightening you hope they will never be real. In some ways this is a horror film but without the blood and torture that genre almost always utilizes. 

The DC Mini, a machine that makes it possible for doctors to see what you dream on a monitor (to include interpreting the meaning) is at the heart of the story. Dr. Chiba not only sees her patients’ dreams but she is able to enter them as her alter ego, Paprika.

Through the use of the DC Mini, patients can be manipulated and seemingly trapped in their nightmares, never to escape.  

As time passes in the film it becomes more layered, more terrifying and more mesmerizing. Here is the ultimate point of layering: some characters break away from their dreams only to recognize that they haven't run away at all; the reality is that they have only dreamed the dream was over! This may be close to how a mentally ill person feels, totally trapped in a state of somewhere else.

Certainly this is a challenging film meant only for movie goers interested in the depths of various states of mind. It’s possible to see something great that you know you don’t fully understand. This may be such an experience.