My friend Dave called on Saturday to see if I wanted to go to the movies and offered to pick up the tab. That’s hard to turn down. He decided he wanted to see “The Orphanage” and I was game even though I’d just seen it the night before.
My view of the movie didn’t change on the second viewing. The only negative was that Dave didn’t seem to like it as much as the rest of us. He’s a very finicky movie viewer at times. If a movie is animated he’s very unlikely to see it. If it has subtitles, as this one did, he’s going to go into it with a negative perspective. After it was over he complained that he missed “half the movie” between having to look up and down from the words to the screen. I can’t say I agree with him on that one.
Anyway, what I did get from the second viewing was a chance to see if the movie had cheated on plotlines and if everything tidied up nicely and it all did. In fact, I realized a few things that I’d missed or didn’t quite get the first time through.
I’m still not sure if this movie belongs in 2008 or 2007. It apparently has been out for some time elsewhere but just showed up here Friday. I’ve I moved it to 2007 I’d have to put it in my top five. Otherwise it’s likely to be a top choice for next year.
On a down note I see Daniel Day Lewis got the Golden Globe award for Best Actor for that goofy neck-craning performance. I guess I just don’t get it.
