Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Fragile/Frágiles (2005) - Balagueró's flawed children's hospital horror

4/15/2018

Fragile/Frágiles (2005) - Balagueró's flawed children's hospital horror

♥♥♥

A person is sitting in a moldy, dark room in what appears a painful predicament in a wheelchair in this sinister-indicating poster for Jaume Balagueró's Fragile

A traumatized American nurse is hired by a children's hospital on a small, English island. Here a late former nurse by the name of Charlotte haunts the place with a nasty habit of breaking the children's bones, - to prevent them from leaving her, naturally.

Fragile is written by Jordi Galceran (The Method (2005, play)) and co-writer-director Jaume Balagueró ([Rec] (2007)). It stars Calista Flockhart (Drunks (1995)), whom anyone who used to watch and appreciate Ally McBeal (1997-02)) will feel nostalgic to see again, (she has acted post-Ally but almost solely in TV), but unfortunately this Spain/UK horror co-production also reveals that she isn't a top-tier actress. That is a major downside for the film, as her role has to carry so much of it. The writing is also at times a bit banal and predictable.
On the other hand, Fragile has a first-rate score by Roque Baños (Evil Dead (2013)) and a very affecting sound design. It also has those bone-cracking scenes, which are intriguingly frightening.

Listen to Roque Baños' score for the film here

Cost:Reportedly 7 mil. €, equaling approximately 8.62 mil. $
Box office: 6.6 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Fragile premiered 2 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place in England and Spain from August - December 2004. The biggest markets were Spain with 3.2 mil. $ (48.5 % of the total gross) and Italy with 1.3 mil. $ (19-7 %). The film lacked theatrical releases in North America, the UK, France (only a film festival release) and Germany. It won 1/2 Goya awards nominations, Spain's Oscar. Balagueró returned with To Let (2006, TV movie) and theatrically with zombie horror hit [Rec] (2007). Flockhart returned in Brothers & Sisters (2006-11). 14,081 IMDb users have given Fragile a 6.1/10 critical average.]

What do you think of Fragile?

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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4/15/2018

Fragile/Frágiles (2005) - Balagueró's flawed children's hospital horror

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