It is refreshing to find Marisa Paredes playing Carmen, the stern-but-caring amputee headmistress of an all-boys orphanage living in civil-war torn Spain. This is, after all, an El Deseo production, made immediately apparent with the stylized credits, the accompanying images starting out blurry, deferring definition until slowly are revealed fetuses floating preserved in apothecary jars, one of these poor souls sporting the spine-shaped vertebrae of the film's title.
Soon after the arrival of child Carlos (Fernando Tielve), whose father has been killed unbeknownst to him on the front, the plot begins to thicken. He starts off bumping heads with bully Jaime (Íñigo Garcés), whom he eventually befriends, as they face the question of mystery-boy Santi's (Junio Valverde) disappearance and the presence of a ghost named "the one who sighs." The prepubescent odd couple endearingly resolve the all the film's quandaries, which doesn't go without tons of tragic explosions and the total breakdown of the established social structures, all making for a very satisfying view.
A pretty good movie throughout, El Espinazo is almost prerequisite viewing for the slightly under-whelming del Toro production El Orfanato (2007, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona). Both movies prominently feature children players as hero-protagonists. Both films also deal with the character in absentia of a boy-child ghost (Santi in Espinazo vs. Tomás in El Orfanato). Like spooky, Casper-the-friendly-ghost presences, they are source for much of both films' suspense and drama.
Tangentially noteworthy is the shared setting of war between El Espinazo del Diablo and Oscar-fetching El Laberinto del Fauno (2006, directed by del Toro). It's in the latter film that the fantastic elements of the story encroach more strongly onto the grim depiction of reality and in both serve as a counterpoint to the desperate acts these settings of war cause their players to take.
Mostly, El Espinazo sheds light on del Toro's past cinematic technical genius, showing his deft craftsmanship and an ability to create entire dreamscape realities seemingly effortlessly. It's no wonder his is one of those hot, buzzword names. A gore-fest, no, but still, El Espinazo del Diablo weaves together nuanced, thoughtful elements of suspense into a compelling, engrossing work.
dir Guillermo del Toro
aka The Devil's Backbone
El Espinazo del Diablo official site
Nice trailer (Spanish with English subtitles):
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