''Fragile'' () is a 2005 Spanish-British horror film directed by

Jaume Balagueró Jaume Balagueró Bernat (; born 2 November 1968) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter known for his horror films, most notably the acclaimed REC (film), ''REC'' series. Early life Balagueró was born in Lleida and grew up in Barcelona ...

Plot

On the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, a train accident on the Island Line means that the main hospital, St. James's, is completely full and unable to take in any more patients. A smaller and older hospital, Mercy Falls, is being closed down, but some of the patients, including the children's ward, need to remain at the site until there is availability elsewhere. One of the children, Maggie, an orphan suffering from severe

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

, tells the night nurse, Susan, that "she" is coming, unnerving her. Another child at the ward, Simon, wakes up with a horrible pain in his leg. He is taken to receive an

x-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

, where it is found that his

femur The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The Femo ...

has been broken. A doctor asks him how the injury happened, but Simon has no idea. Susan leaves the hospital on sick leave and Amy Nicholls replaces her. Amy bonds with Maggie as both are orphans. Maggie explains to Amy that there is a girl called Charlotte who lives in the abandoned ward upstairs. Roy, the operations manager, explains to Amy that Charlotte is an urban legend that has been seen by several children over the past two decades. Simon later tells Amy that Charlotte is the one who broke his leg. Amy visits Susan to ask why she left but learns that Susan died in an accident. She meets two local psychics, who explain that Charlotte can only be seen by those who are close to death. Back at Mercy Falls, the children watch

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

and Maggie says that true love's kiss has special power. Amy looks at the files of the other children who'd mentioned Charlotte. All of these children are deceased; Amy realizes that Maggie must be close to death. Later, Roy is killed by Charlotte after she causes him to have a major nose bleed then violently forces him backward through a window. Amy goes up to the second floor through a hidden trapdoor. She finds an old photograph of a girl in a wheelchair with a nurse and a film-reel which shows the girl on a medical treatment for

osteogenesis imperfecta Osteogenesis imperfecta (; OI), colloquially known as brittle bone disease, is a group of genetic disorders that all result in bones that bone fracture, break easily. The range of symptoms—on the skeleton as well as on the body's other Or ...

or "brittle bone disease". The photograph is labelled, "Charlotte and Mandy, 1959." Charlotte begins to appear in front of a metal door shown as a grey tall figure with braces on her legs. Maggie saves Amy, dropping her favorite blanket, "Mr. Sleepy" in the process. Amy and Dr. Robert view the film and Robert explains the disease Charlotte suffered from was a sickness that causes the patient's bones to be susceptible to fractures. Doctors had built orthotic braces for Charlotte to wear, in the hopes of strengthening her bones. Amy now believes Charlotte is the

vengeful ghost In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or crem ...

of the little girl who is hurting the children. She searches the records but no child called Charlotte existed. Amy finally learns why the upstairs ward is closed. The nurse caring for the little girl had become obsessed with her. When the treatments began to work and the child improved, she started purposely breaking the girl's bones and eventually murdered the child. She then put on the child's braces and leapt down an elevator shaft, to her death. Robert shows Amy a file he found which proves that "Mandy" is the child's name and "Charlotte" is in fact, the obsessed nurse. Amy realizes Charlotte wants the children. The hospital starts falling apart because of Charlotte's rage as the staff desperately try to evacuate the children, assisted by additional staff from St. James's. As help arrives, Amy realises that everything is suddenly calm, and Mrs. Folder says that Maggie is missing. Amy realises that Maggie went to get her 'Mr Sleepy' and runs to the abandoned ward. Weak and exhausted, Maggie is in Mandy's old room. Despite Charlotte's presence, Amy determinedly picks up Maggie and tries to reach the trapdoor but Charlotte causes the floor to destabilise and Amy's leg is impaled by a piece of metal, causing major bleeding. As the two escape the second floor by jumping through the trapdoor, Maggie succumbs to her illness and stops breathing. Despite Amy's desperate attempts, the little girl dies in her arms. Amy then also collapses from blood loss. Robert futilely tries to revive her with a

defibrillator Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). Defibrillation delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''count ...

but Amy's heart stops beating. As the medical team step back, we see Maggie's ghost give Amy a "pure love" kiss, similar to the one she watched in Sleeping Beauty earlier, and Amy begins to breathe again. The movie ends as Amy wakes up in a different hospital with Robert at her side. An elderly patient notices Maggie's smiling ghost sitting on Amy's bedside - staying close to what she loved best in life.

Cast

Calista Flockhart Calista Kay Flockhart (born November 11, 1964) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying the title character on the Fox television series '' Ally McBeal'' (1997–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe Award in 1998 and w ...

as Amy Nicholls *

Richard Roxburgh Richard Roxburgh (born 23 January 1962) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of a number of accolades across film, television, and theatre, including several AFI and AACTA Awards, Logie Awards, and Helpmann Awards. He bega ...

as Robert Marcus *

Elena Anaya Elena Anaya Gutiérrez (born 17 July 1975) is a Spanish actress. She garnered public recognition in Spain for her performance in ''Sex and Lucia'' (2001), which also earned her a nomination to the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress. She st ...

as Helen Perez *

Gemma Jones Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility (film), Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the Bridget Jones (film series), ''Bridget Jo ...

as Mrs./Dr. Folder * Yasmin Murphy as Maggie Reynolds *

Colin McFarlane Colin Andrew Ignatius Peter McFarlane (born 15 September 1961) is a British actor, narrator and voice actor. He is known for his roles in film and television including Gillian B. Loeb in two films of Christopher Nolan's '' The Dark Knight Tril ...

as Roy *

Michael Pennington Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is an English actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has wr ...

as Marcus * Daniel Ortiz as Matt * Susie Trayling as Susan * Karmeta Cervera/ Julieta Marocco as Charlotte Rivers * Ivana Baquero as Mandy Phillips

Production

Fragile was filmed between

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain and the

, England. Many scenes were shot in or near locations familiar to residents of the Isle of Wight, including Union Street in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 24,096 according to the 2021 Census. Its growth as a seaside resort came after the villages of Upper Ryde and ...

Ryde Pier Ryde Pier is an early 19th century pier serving the town of Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. It is the world's oldest seaside pleasure pier. Ryde Pier Head railway station is at the sea end of the pier, and Ryde E ...

, the

Military Road A military road is a type of road built by an armed force A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily Weapon, armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and ma ...

Chale Chale is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight of England, in the United Kingdom. It is located three kilometres from Niton in the south of the Island in the area known as the Back of the Wight. The village of Chale lies at the foot ...

, and aboard the . The exterior scenes of the hospital were filmed at

Bearwood House Bearwood or Bear Wood, Sindlesham, Berkshire, England is a Victorian country house built for John Walter, the owner of ''The Times''. The architect was Robert Kerr and the house was constructed between 1865 and 1874. The family fortune had been ...

in Berkshire, England. The Sleeping Beauty animation short seen on the projector was created specifically for this movie.

Release

The film premiered on 2 September 2005 as part of the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

and was released in a theatrical release in Spain on 14 October 2005. The movie has had several release dates around the world since its original release in October 2005. Lightning Media released the film in July 2010 via DVD,

Video on Demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

and Digital Download. ''Fragile'' is also part of the Fangoria FrightFest 2010 on 21 June 2010.Fangoria Fright Fest

References

External links