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Calista Flockhart, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya, Yasmine Murphy, Gemma Jones ... see more see more... , Colin McFarlane , Michael Pennington , Susie Trayling , Daniel Ortiz , Yasmin Murphy

A malevolent supernatural force besets a dilapidated children's hospital on the Isle of Man, terrifying the young patients and breaking their bones in this supernatural thriller from Spanish horror sp... read more read more...ecialist Jaume Balagueró (The Nameless, [REC]). Mercy Falls Hospital has been in operation for nearly a hundred years, but now the authorities have declared it unfit for human inhabitation. As a result, the time has come for the hospital to close. But just as the helicopters arrive to transport the children to a new facility, bad weather forces them to remain grounded. Later, as Nurse Amy (Calista Flockhart) tends to her young charges, the children's bones begin to fracture for no apparent reason. Though the doctors remain baffled by the inexplicable injuries, the children sense something that the grown-ups do not. Somewhere in these crumbling corridors lurks a force of darkness consumed by pain, and filled with hatred. The children have dubbed it "The Mechanical Girl," and they claim to have stolen glimpses of it sobbing in the shadows. In order to banish the spirit and save the children, one brave soul will have to summon the courage to face a force powerful enough to cause physical damage, yet so fragile it might be completely destroyed by the slightest touch. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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51% liked it

4,740 ratings

PG-13, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Jaume Balagueró

Release Date: August 4, 2005

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DVD Release Date: September 28, 2010

Stats: 477 reviews

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Frágiles (2005) Frágiles - (2005) Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Yasmin Murphy as Maggie, Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Scene from Frágiles (2005) Yasmin Murphy as Maggie, Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Karmeta Cervera as Charlotte in Frágiles (2005) Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Frágiles (2005) Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls, Yasmin Murphy as Maggie in Frágiles (2005) Yasmin Murphy as Maggie in Frágiles (2005) Scene from Frágiles (2005) Yasmin Murphy as Maggie, Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005) Frágiles (2005) Elena Anaya as Helen Perez in Frágiles (2005) Elena Anaya as Helen Perez, Calista Flockhart as Amy Nicholls in Frágiles (2005)
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Flixster Reviews (477)

  • lewiskendell
    April 4, 2012
    lewiskendell
    It's nice to stumble on a decent, under the radar horror movie now and again. Fragile isn't amazing, but it did surprise me with how watchable and well-made it is.

    Calista Flockhart stars as a nurse recently arrived at Mercy Falls Hospital, which is almost 100 years old and ful... read morel of history. The hospital is about to be closed, though, and as the inhabitants of the children's ward are leaving unexplainable, malevolent events are beginning to occur. One of the children speaks of seeing a "mechanical girl", and the mystery of that ghostly apparition may be the key to it all.

    Fragile is more creepy than frightening, but it kept my interest throughout. There's a bit of a mystery woven within it that matches well with the atmosphere the movie cultivates, and even a bit of a twist to keep things from being entirely predictable. There's some occasional over-acting from the numerous child actors (which is understandable), as well as some from Flockhart and Elena Anaya (which is less so), but that's all I can really complain about. I liked Fragile. It takes the time to establish mood and characters while managing to never teeter into boredom. If you're in the mood for a solid ghost story, you could do much, much worse.
  • ScoopOnline
    February 9, 2012
    ScoopOnline
    Not actually Calista Flockart Fan but I think she did a nice work in this Movie.
  • stuartb1234
    November 4, 2011
    stuartb1234
    Quick Review:- Boring. Long Review:- Boring and not very scary.
  • LWOODS04
    September 30, 2011
    LWOODS04
    Cast: Calista Flockhart, Elena Anaya, Richard Roxburgh, Gemma Jones, Yasmin Murphy, Colin McFarlane, Michael Pennington, Daniel Ortiz, Susie Trayling

    Director: Jaume Balagueró

    Summary: In this atmospheric thriller, American nurse Amy (Calista Flockhart) is thrust into an ... read moreeerie and dangerous world when she takes a temporary job at an isolated children's hospital in England that's slated for closure. The children, who are being terrorized and injured in baffling ways, confide in Amy that "the mechanical girl" doesn't want them to leave, and Amy must convince skeptics that the menace is real.

    My Thoughts: "I wasn't expecting to like this film. But I ended up finding myself interested in the story and happy I took a chance on an unknown thriller. I wouldn't consider this a scary film, although it does have the spooky qualities down packed, but thriller definitely fits the film. Good acting by the children and Flockhart. The film is more interesting then most scary flicks being put out today. It's got the perfect scenario, an isolated haunted children's hospital. It doesn't get better then that. In the end it's worth taking a look at."
  • itsjustme2004
    August 2, 2011
    itsjustme2004
    Good setup, and some interesting ideas, but ultimately silly, and pointless...unless the point of this movie was to make me wonder what happened to Calista's career.
  • gokhale1
    March 7, 2011
    gokhale1
    Horror hits a new low with this 2005 tripe called "Fragile" (ugghhh!). Written and directed by Jaume Balagueró, this poor excuse of a horror film is such an alarmingly shoddy piece of work, one wonders what the hell were the scriptwriters smoking!

    And how many times?? Pray t... read moreell...how many more movies are going to use that done to death clichéd concept of little children who can "see dead people"! Good grief, enough already! It is time to come out of the "Sixth Sense" syndrome.


    So we have this children's hospital "Mercy Falls", see...which is going to be shut down. Only a few kids remain and are about to be transferred to another hospital. But things start taking a mysterious turn when one of the boys suffers a painful fracture, apparently for no reason! What's more..just as an X-ray is about to be taken, another fracture appears out of nowhere! 'Wow..what a big, intriguing mystery', you might say!! No surprise there at all.....it is being inflicted by some ghostly being which is visible right now to only one weird little girl called Maggie (Yasmin Murphy). The ghost goes by the name of Charlotte...and is described by Maggie as "The Mechanical Girl"! The night nurse Susan (Susie Trayling) quits her job, because she realizes "something is not right"!


    Enter Amy (Calista Flockhart) who is specially brought in for those last few days as a replacement. Yet another cliché is used then, as Maggie is initially difficult but later very friendly with Amy. Why Amy takes a special liking to only Maggie and hardly even notices the other poor tots is another mystery but let us leave that aside. Come night time and strange things begin to happen..weird clanging noises come from the second floor, which believe it or not has been shut off completely since 1959 and is no more in use! But guess what?? No one has bothered to clear the place at all....all the memorabilia from that and subsequent years still exist in the ruins of the second floor..including an old photograph which provides a very important key to this mystery which appears to be cooked up by some 4-year old! Good guess...no one goes there! Even the elevator has the button for floor #2 missing! That floor is inhabited by the ghost! (Booooo....Scarrrryyyyy!!) Wow..what a twist! Getting interesting right??

    Alright so this ghost decides to come to the first floor only at night and makes her ugly appearance to Maggie in particular (again for no apparent reason). Why she appears and what they do when they meet is not explained! Except Charlotte communicates with Maggie through some toy letter blocks, 'cause Charlotte cannot speak, she can only moan and groan as if she is badly in need of a visit to the dentist! The problems get increasingly out of hand and Amy decides to get to the bottom of this! Some accidents happen during this time...but...yes! You guessed it! They are just deemed as "accidents" nothing beyond that....even the doctor on duty who seems to have developed a liking for Amy doesn't believe Amy when she hints at some paranormal phenomena being responsible for the shocking episodes in the hospital.

    Amy makes up her mind to get to the bottom of the mystery and learns about the general "mindset" of ghosts during her quest! (Oh...pulllleeeeezeee!!) Banking on which she takes her further steps, eventually leading this picture to its utterly, ridiculously lame finale which is so bad it makes you wanna strangle the film-maker for making us sit through it all!


    Nothing works in this film. The scares (or the lack of them) are done to death and thus not scary anymore. The special effects are cheap. The acting is nothing to speak about. The characters are all cardboard cutouts and you can almost predict the personality of each character and how he/she will behave. And the script, the "fragile" backbone of this doomed venture is so abysmal, it is difficult to add the appropriate adjectives. The ghost, Charlotte seems to be a total imbecile....if the mindset of ghosts can be predicted so well, why on earth would they show such inconsistent behavior is beyond me! We are shown several different events happening in the film....but the big secret in the end renders these happenings totally illogical. There is absolutely no intelligence (I am not kidding) of any kind in this script.
    The ghost which is mostly in the shadows and in blurred frames finally graces us with its disgusting presence in the end and the cheap CGI used to change its expressions shows! In the midst of all this, poor little kids suffer such terribly painful fractures, it makes one question the artistic merit this Jaume Balaguero who uses such cheap devices to create shock value.

    And the biggest icing on this monumental mess is the puke-inducing sappy twist ending which created some serious doubts in my mind about the filmmaker's mental faculties. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears! What the fuck was that really!

    There are bad movies which at least make you laugh at its badness, so it is well worth the trip. But "Fragile" sucks so bad it will only end up making you think you wasted some extremely precious 90 minutes of your time.

    Avoid at all costs!
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    September 12, 2010
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Fragile is the third Spanish horror film that I have had the pleasure to see. The first being The Others with Nicole Kidman and Rec. Nowadays, I'm so fed up with the climate in the horror genre, and Hollywood seems too scared in trying to release something new and original, they ... read moreseem all too concerned with releasing remakes of great classics, many of these remakes fail to capture the horrifying essence of the original, as the films end being more annoying with a tween oriented cast and with cheap jump scares thrown in for good measure. My local Walmart are selling the Fangoria FrightFest series (dunno if it's a promotion for halloween or not) and one of those title were this one, I was skeptical about viewing this because of Calista Fl.ockhart, but I was hopeful because this was directed by Jaume Blaguero, director of Rec. What I got was a pleasant surprise. Good acting from Flockhart and awesome suspense, buildup and horror. This film returns to the basis of what has made horror so great back in the 70's and 80's. The film doesn't attack you with cheap jump scares, it steadily builds the tension to create it's horror. Fragile is a very scary, original and very well made film. I do not know why the DVD is taking so long to release, as this was made in 2005 (only now distributors are releasing it in North America). Fragile is a terrific horror film. Spain and France are making more and more effective horror films. Though maybe, not the best of horror films, Fragile is still much better than most recent Hollywood produced trash out there. This film is a worthy entry in the Horror genre, and it also somewhat resembles, the creepy ghost story films that the Japanese are constantly putting out. to sum this up, a great Horror flick that will surprise the diehard Horror fans. A film that shouldn't be missed by anyone who loves effectively creepy horror. This is a film that is much better and scaring you then all those tween oriented horror films that have nothing but cheap scares. Fragile is a stunning, and smart horror film that has terrific acting, and genuine scary moments.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    January 15, 2009
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "A ghost story."

    In Wight Island, Amy Nicholls arrives in the old Mercy Falls Children Hospital to work as night nurse as replacement of the former nurse Susan. The hospital is in a deactivation process, with the patients being transferred to Saint James Hospital; however... read more, due to a train crash, the closing process has been postponed. Amy is introduced to eight children with lung cases by the nurse Helen Perez, and she feels a sort of attraction for the terminal girl Maggie. Maggie likes to play with some letter blocks to talk with the "mechanical girl" called Charlotte that would live upstairs, in an abandoned floor. Amy asks about Charlotte to her coworkers and they explain that she is an urban legend and the Maggie is making up her existence. But sooner they find that the children can not be transferred to Saint James since there is something evil that wants to keep them near.

    Review
    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.
  • vierasesine
    May 17, 2008
    vierasesine
    *SPOILERY*

    Charlotte could've been so much scarier had she not been turned into that weird, morphing *thing*.
  • drblood
    August 8, 2007
    drblood
    I usually like ghostie films but this was terrible. I don't know quite why but it just kept making me fall asleep. Perhaps it was because it was a joint venture between England and Spain (or maybe it was setting it on the Isle of Wight!) but I think the most likely reason was the... read more overly slow pacing and Asian-style storyline that just bored me. Calista Flockhart was dull as ditchwater too.

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Critic Reviews

Leslie Felperin
February 23, 2012
Leslie Felperin, Variety

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