User Reviews

Troubled American nurse Amy (a fine, credible, and affecting performance by Calista Flockhart) gets a job working the night shift at the crumbling Mercy Falls Children's Hospital in Britain. The place is being closed down. Amy discovers that there's a dangerous and possessive spirit known as Charlotte the mechanical girl (a genuinely creepy portrayal by Karmeta Cervera) on a disused floor who refuses to let the child patients leave the hospital. Director Jaume Balaguero, who also co-wrote the thoughtful script with Jordi Galceran, relates the compelling story at a deliberate pace, does an expert job of creating and sustaining an eerie and unsettling atmosphere of pure dread and unease, makes wisely judicious use of both excessive graphic gore and flashy special effects, and pulls out all the harrowing stops for the thrilling climax. Moreover, Balaguero brings a classy and subtle sensibility and sensitivity to the material that kicks the overall quality of the movie up a few extra notches. The excellent acting from the tip-top cast rates as another substantial asset: Flockhart brings a touching and appealing vulnerability to her sympathetic character, with sterling support from Richard Roxburgh as the skeptical Dr. Robert Marcus, Elena Anaya as stern nurse Helen Perez, Gemma Jones as hard-nosed head administrator Mrs. Folder, Colin McFarlane as amiable handyman Roy, and, most impressive of all, the adorable Yasmin Murphy as frightened and precocious little girl Maggie. Xavi Gimenez's shadowy cinematography gives the picture an appropriately gloomy look. Roque Banos' shivery score does the elegantly uncanny trick. A real sleeper.

Fragile is set on the Isle of Wight where an old hospital called Mercy Falls is due to be shut down, all but a handful of patients have already been moved to another hospital but after a major train crash beds become scarce so a ward of child remain there. New night nurse Amy Nicholls (Calista Flockhart) takes charge & forms a bond with a young terminal patient named Maggie (Yasmin Murphy) who claims that she can see another girl named Charlotte, the other nurses & staff put Charlotte down to Maggie's imaginary friend but Amy is not so sure. Cahrlotte is considered an urban legend at Mercy Falls as various children have seen her down the years but as the closing down process continues unexplained injuries & even death's make Amy question what is going on, Amy thinks it could have something to do with the deserted closed down second floor that has a dark past & starts to investigate...

Shot under the title Frágiles this Spanish & British co-production was co-written & directed by Jaume Balagueró, despite some of the surprisingly positive comments & reviews Fragile is nothing more than a slightly better than average ghost story about a vengeful spirit & little else. Fragile goes for atmosphere & a long sustained build-up rather than flashy effects & novelty kills, some may like it's leisurely pace & get into the story & it's character's & while I thought it was reasonably watchable & modestly effective nothing impressed me that much. The story is your typical vengeful spirit one, the whole angle about people seeing ghost's if themselves are about to die is contradicted at the end & the emotional core of the Fragile which is undoubtedly the relationship between night nurse Amy & terminally ill Maggie didn't move me that much, or at least as much as it maybe should have done. At just under an hour & forty minutes it seemed longer to me, again there's a lot of build-up which is competently done & acted but I must admit I just started to lose interest. The explanations behind the haunting & ghost's in general are vague & offer nothing new over what has been suggested before, while I can't say I hated Fragile as it's well made & tells a reasonable story at it's own pace I never really got into it & I was never enthralled or gripped or that interested in anything that going on. An OK supernatural ghost story but far from special.

Fragile is certainly stylishly made with sterile colours & good use of dimly lit hospital corridors, I am sure the intention was to build the suspense & tension during the first half & then go for all out thrills & chills during the second half but again I just never got that into it or the story. There's no real gore, someone's leg is impaled on a pipe & a deformed ghost is show's up but Fragile is more about atmosphere & low keys thrills than all out horror & cheap scares although the last twenty minutes does feel a little like that with a hospital crumbling around various people & a ghost showing up. Apparently edited in the US to get a lower rating the uncut version has a few swear words & a bit of gore but nothing that significantly alters the film.

Filmed mainly in Spain with a Spanish crew it's surprising it was shot in English, it's well made for sure but I doubt I will remember much about it in a week or two. The acting is good from a solid cast, one of very few feature film appearances from TV star Flockhart while Richard Roxburgh turns up in a supporting role.

Fragile is a film that requires patience & is alright if your looking for a slow moving ghost story but don't expect some sort of masterpiece as it's fairly predictable & I didn't think there was anything new here at all. Not a bad film at all but just not a great one either.

This week my dad found out that "For one week only" the local library had a half-price sale on DVD rentals,and along with some fantastic English political-dramas (State of Play and House of Cards),he also picked this up and last night I felt it was time to watch it,and I'm am very pleased I did,due to it being a really enjoyable and well made horror film.

The Plot:

One night in a hospital at the Isle of Wight,a boy wakes up screaming and its found out that one of his legs has a fracture.But while the night-nurse Susan and a doctor try help,he suddenly gets a second fracture,and due to this Susan feels its time that she should try to find out about the "strangeness) of the hospital.

The person that replaces her is Amy,who fins out that the hospital has a first and third floor,but the second floor has been closed for forty years!,Amy becomes friends with a little girl at the hospital called Maggie.Maggie tells her how she uses building- blocks to talk to Charlotte,who she says is "The Mechanical Girl".At first,Amy dismisses this,but as her friends start to die she finds out that Charlotte has been a "urban myth" at the hospital for years.So my decides its time someone goes inside the second floor..

View on the film:

Cast:

The first thing i have to say is that Flockhart gives a very good performance as Amy.She shows her unease about the hospital,but also the determination to try and save the kids at the hospital.But the star of the film is Yasmin Murphy as Maggie,she shows that she is a bit of a spooky kid,who also wants to make a friend,and she is mature enough to know and (try) to understand the thing on the second floor.

Screenplay and direction:

The director and co-writer of the film is Javme Balguer and the other writer is Jordi Galceran.The film has a very strong Stephen King feel,that makes it feel a bit like a horror novel,so when its shown whats on the second floor,it has a very natural feel and less of a rug getting pulled under your feet feel.

Final View on the film:

A fantastic horror,with a classy feel,and a great performance by Murphy.

Supernatural spookshow from director Jaume Balagueró has Calista Flockhart as a newly hired night nurse, Amy Nicholls, to a children's hospital in England, who discovers something sinister which lives on the abandoned second floor. The hospital is about to close it's doors and Amy is hired to help the staff prepare for the removal for the rest of the patients, among other duties, replacing another who could no longer cope with the "mechanical girl" the children go on and on about. Maggie(Yasmin Murphy)is an orphan patient with cystic fibrosis who informs Amy about Charlotte, the ghost that haunts the upper floor, and was deeply cared for by the nurse she replaced, Susan. Susan is returning to the hospital when her car crashes, killing her. The series of events, such as a little boy named Simon, suffering a double fracture, the cause not so easily explained, and a mysterious mishap when an elevator goes haywire, could be related to "the mechanical girl", and as Amy digs into Charlotte's past, she is convinced that Maggie and the other children will be in danger if they are not removed from the building, the premises, altogether. The hospital is coming apart, as fragile as Charlotte was in life, cracks in the crumbling walls when she is enraged, and her power can kill, paranormal activity quite present even if the other members of the staff try to deny her presence. As explained by Robert Marcus(Richard Roxburgh), the night doctor, Charlotte suffered from "brittle bone disease", osteogenesis imperfecta, and so this agonizing existence continues after her painful demise..and in her rage, she wants others to suffer as she did as well. With the simply gorgeous Elena Anaya as Amy's fellow nurse, Helen, Gemma Jones as Mrs. Folder, the hospital administrator, and Colin McFarlane as Roy, who is assisting in the moving of objects and personnel. Murphy is a doll and Flockhart imbues her character with a sense of tragedy and sadness, haunted by an incident from the past which motivates her to do whatever she can to help see that Maggie escapes the hospital unharmed. The ending literally has the hospital falling apart with Amy trying to guide Maggie out of the clutches of Charlotte as her volcanic anger ruptures the very foundation of the building, its walls and floors.

Don't look, don't move and don't even breathe.............

Well this movie opened yesterday in Spain and I saw it and I have to say that I liked it. I have seen the directors two previous movies, LOS SIN NOMBRE and DARKNESS and I think he is one of the most interesting directors in Europe at the moment. Fragile is just like Darkness in English with an international cast, mainly with actors from the UK, but in the lead we see the American actress Calista Flockhart and Australian actor Richard Roxburgh.

The movie starts very slow but after 45 minutes it comes alive and you jump out of your seat a couple of times. The acting is not the best, Calista looks mostly tired throughout the movie and there is a scene between her and Richard that should be very moving but ends up laughable. (you will recognize it when you see the movie).

Spanish actress Elena Anaya is hot and very talented and should have had more scenes.

The best thing with this movie is the mechanical girl, the ghost living on the 2nd floor. She or IT is really scary and the make up artists have done a terrific job. Every time she appears you will definitely be sacred. This movie is not going to go down as one of the best horror movies ever made, but if you like movies like The sixth sense, the omen, the eye you will definitely enjoy this one. I hope Dimension films picks this one up for an US release cause with Calista in the lead I think the movie could gross at least 40-60 million at the box office.

I can't wait for the directors next movie. Viva España!

Calista Flockhart (of 'Ally Mcbeal' fame) stars as Amy Nicholls, an American nurse who transfers to an English children's hospital to help the patients in their upcoming transfer out of the near-abandoned hospital. After connecting with a particularly eccentric young girl, Maggie (Yasmin Murphy), Amy soon discovers there's more to the hospital that meets the eye. After a series of violent & strange accidents occur, Amy fights to learn the secrets that have been hidden from her by the staff.

Jaume Balagueró, now best known for bringing the world the modern-classic horrors 'Rec' and its sequel, started out with a couple of lesser-known horror flicks including the creepy horror/thriller 'The Nameless' and the forgettable Anna Paquin vehicle 'Darkness.' Among these films, Balagueró bagged former TV star Flockhart to star in this haunted-hospital horror. It goes without saying that if one wants a creepy & dangerous location for a haunted-house story, a hospital is a great bet. There have been some fantastic hospital horrors including the much-loved 'Session 9' (2001).

'Frágiles,' like 'Session 9,' had a lot going for it to be a very solid horror flick. It had a talented cast, a very scary location, and a fantastic writer/director. And, for the first 80 or so minutes of the film, I thought we horror fans would have yet another great Spanish horror for the decade. It was spooky, mysterious, and interesting. While it did drag a bit in places, it still had enough suspense to make it worth it. Then, we reached the final act. After enjoying the slow-burning first three-quarters of the film, I was ready for a very creepy conclusion. Unfortunately, the film spiraled into a bit of a mess complete with a horrendously laughable spirit (worse than Elizabeth Bathory in 'Stay Alive' or the Tooth Fairy in 'Darkness falls'), some lame CGI effects, and a fast-paced, disaster-movie feel. While I didn't mind what the film was trying to do with the final act, the execution was much too rushed and far over-the-top. It would have been much better off without it.

Overall, the film is interesting and creepy with enough suspense to make it worth a watch.

Final Verdict: 6/10.

-AP3-

Darkness (Balaguero's movie before this one) had a very basic plot. This is to shot 54673 frames (some for them in white) to the viewer so he or she can get scared.

Not succeed. Like in Matrix nobody accepted that (old) idea and then he decided to move to another ground. This is, the classic modern horror movie.

Fragile is a horror movie that moves the heart and gives cold sweat with very evoking images, rocking music and shocking scares. Calista Flockhart is even doing something with her performance, but the little girl and Richard Roxburgh really buy the movie. What could had been a stupid remake of another Japanese movie in the hands of the wrong director, it turned into a beautiful story about weakness and love.

Or just that my silly opinion.

On the Isle of Wright, Mary Falls Children Hospital is shutting down and moving to St. James...but not just yet. A freak train accident has caused over crowding at St. James. Meanwhile, strange things are going on at Mary Falls. Susan, the night time nurse gets spooked and quits her job. Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) from the US replaces her. She is very protective of the children especially one terminal case, Maggie (Yasmin Murphy) who talks to the "mechanical girl," a ghost named Charlotte. I liked her in this film.

The second floor of the hospital has been closed since 1959 and is the home to "things that go bump in the night."

The movie builds slowly. It utilizes a good sound track and gives you time to think and breathe in between the scary scenes. For some reason the heavy scare factor didn't weigh in as it should. A crippled ghost picky on kids in a hospital on an island. .

F-bombs, no sex, no nudity.