I used to be an avid watcher of horror movies. Even since I started living all alone in a quiet apartment complex, I have given up on my interest. It’s not that I am afraid but that I am not very keen on being disturbed.
My parents have come for a visit and so I have resumed watching this genre of movies. I watched ‘Fragile’ recently. A movie starring Callista Flockhart and having Spanish subtitles. It reminded me of another Spanish horror movie, ‘The Orphanage, ’ and the Jennifer Connelly starrer ‘Dark Waters’.
What will strike you deeply in this movie are the sensitive performances of the actors and the human touch in the story. Calista Flockhart plays Amy the conscientious nurse beautifully. It shows you the fragile side of the medical profession when you have to deal with fatal mistakes, dying patients, job integrity, and the never give up attitude of a medical personnel who struggles to save a patient by any way possible.
It also brings up the question of how much one needs to get involved when one does their duty as emotional attachment to patients is not something encouraged. The story and the plot treatment touch these themes with sheer subtlety even while keeping the real spooks of a horror or ghost movie alive.
Amy Nicholls (Calista Flockhart) comes to a hospital in the Isle of Wight, England. She replaces Susan the night nurse who looked after the children’s ward. The eight children are waiting to be transferred. They are sick and some of them such as Maggie, the orphan are terminally ill. Amy and the reserved Maggie take an instant liking to each other. Strange events, noises and occurrences indicate explicitly to the presence of an evil spirit in the hospital which targets the kids. The second floor of the hospital is mysteriously inaccessible and the lift has no number 2 button. The children refer to the spirit to be that of Charlotte, ‘the mechanical girl.’ They communicate with Charlotte through alphabet blocks. Who is this Charlotte? Is it just the imagination of a child? Is Charlotte, a spirit of a child who died in pain? Jaume Balagueró, the director makes the movie like a mystery which unfolds and has a twist at the end. The horror is mostly psychological intertwined with the rude realities faced in the medical profession. The movie will be a good entertainer on a rainy holiday with snacks and coffee.
Now some chit chat facts.
Elena Anaya plays Helen Perez, another nurse and a colleague of Amy. All of you who have seen Justin Timberlake’s ‘Sexy back’ video will surely remember the Spanish woman who plays Justin’s counterpart.
Well she plays a deglamourized nurse here.
Whether as Ally McBeal or some other character, Calista Flockhart has been kissed by her female co stars before. The same repeats in this movie as well but with a difference.
You can watch the full movie in youtube so go for it.