MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > Shoes. A clue?

Shoes. A clue?

posted 14 years ago by this_clay
11 replies | jump to latest

- For the party, Simon was wearing a distinctive outfit: shorts, a gilet and a white shirt. We don't see what shoes he's wearing, but we can assume he was wearing tennis shoes since the sound they make as he runs to meet Laura holding the cake at the door was rather soft.

- The panting boy who attacked Laura in the bathroom is indeed wearing shorts, but we can clearly see he's wearing black boots.

- When Laura interacts with Simon's soul in the basement, he is wearing the same outfit. Again we can't see his shoes. The dead body she finds is also wearing the same outfit but this time the shoes are visible: When she carries the cadavre up the stairs, we can see the frail, decaying legs have black boots on the feet.

- When Laura dies and Simon is "resurrected", he is wearing All-Star tennis shoes.

What this intentional? Does it provide clues on the identity of the attacker? I can't seem to grasp the meaning of it. Any thoughts?

[–] slimjimpui 14 years ago

One thing it does throw light on is that the footprints in the cave at the beginning of the film belong to tennis shoes rather than boots.

[–] idannyp 14 years ago

Personally, I think that it was Simon who attacked Laura in the bathroom. He put on the mask of Tomas and probably found his boots too. He changed his getup so he wasn't recognizable to his mother in order to scare her.

When his body was found, he was still wearing the black boots.

But when he was resurrected at the end, he was wearing tennis shoes.

His normal attire is his average clothes and his average tennis shoes and that's what Laura remembered him as. She imagines her son as the way that she always knew him to look like: wearing his tennis shoes, etc.

So since he was brought back to life by her own imagination, she brought him back in the way that she knows him most looking like, in his everyday clothing and footwear.

[–] OmegaWolf747 14 years ago

If that was indeed Simon in disguise, did he attack Laura to get back at her for slapping him? Did he just end up trapping himself in the basement, or did Benigna kidnap him and then put his body in the basement after she killed him?

--
"House. My room. Can't walk. My medal. My father. Father, don't!"

[–] idannyp 14 years ago

I don't think he intentionally attacked her in order to cause harm. He was trying to scare her. I've always tried to scare my parents as a child (obviously never working). He might have had built up anger inside of him after the fight they got into beforehand, which caused him to overreact.

But no, I don't think he wanted to hurt her.

[–] king_of_bob 13 years ago

If that was indeed Simon in disguise, did he attack Laura to get back at her for slapping him?

Possibly. But it seems more likely he wanted to "play" with her.

Did he just end up trapping himself in the basement, or did Benigna kidnap him and then put his body in the basement after she killed him?

This is pretty much explained in the series of images we see at the end of the movie. Simon went down into the basement which is why the jack-posts fell out of the closet when Laura went near it. Laura traps him in the basement by laying the posts against the door that she isn't aware exists.

Essentially Laura killed Simon. Benigna had literally nothing to do with it. That was a mislead.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

[–] aquariusgirl279 14 years ago

Hmm. That's interesting. I never noticed that. I still think the attacker was Simon. Some people say he was angry at her for slapping him. Some people say he was trying to get revenge. I think he just wanted her attention. I think he pushed her in the bathroom and then ran away to hide in the basement, hoping she'd find him there. Before she slapped him he was begging her to go to Tomas' house with him, but she kept saying no. So he put on Tomas' clothes and pushed her in the bathroom to get her attention. I think he thought she would know it was him, so he pushed her, closed the door on her and ran to the basement thinking she'd play his game and find him.

Since the resurrection was all in her head, he'd be in the clothes she would want/imagine him in. She wouldn't imagine him in Tomas' clothes and therefore he would have been in his regular every day clothes.

Someone else mentioned Benigna. I think it's an interesting theory that she killed him and stashed his body in the basement. It's one I haven't heard, but I don't think so. I think he went down there on his own and Laura accidentally trapped him. I don't think the filmmaker's tricked you on that one.

[–] hugofitch1 14 years ago

Simon went to the basement on his own, and then wallpapered the door shut behind him? Papered the outside of the door from behind it? That would be a neat trick. But then, I watched this in the very wee hours of the morning, so it's possible my eyes were drifting closed during some of the parts that seem to be plot holes. I'll have to give it a rewatch.

[–] Lavender_etc 14 years ago

I think that at this point in the film, Laura and her point of view is an unreliable. She has been taking some sort of pills and is grief-stricken and likely sleep deprived. We see things through her eyes, including, perhaps that the door is still wallpapered over. Remember, whens she finds Simon he is "alive" and talking to her, when we know what she finds is his 9 month dead corpse.

Although it is much more fun to just suspend our disbelief and say "the ghosts did it" when there is a plot hole--at least I think so. :)

[–] Lola_Quigley 13 years ago

To me, it didn't seem like the door had been wallpapered over at all. When Laura goes into the closet, she sees the seam that already exists in the wallpaper; that's what makes her realize that there is a door there at all. I assumed that Benigna had wallpapered over the door, and subsequently cut a seam in the wallpaper around the door--in effect, making a hidden door--when she turned the basement into Thomas's home (the door needed to be hidden so she could keep Thomas "safe" and isolated from the other children).

[–] aamotc 13 years ago

Exactly this. The door seam wasn't covered, it was visible. That's what lead her to notice the door.

Great observations on the shoes though, as that lends credence to my belief that it was Simon in the hallway :)

[–] king_of_bob 13 years ago

Simon went to the basement on his own, and then wallpapered the door shut behind him?

There was wallpaper over the door, but it wasn't wallpapered shut. There was clearly a seam at the edges of the door.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!