Europe has had a thriving film industry since the dawn of movies, but most European films don't get noticed in the United States, unless they are some sort of cultural phenomenon or they've been nominated for a major award. A lot of this has to do with the assumption that American audiences hate subtitles and won't sit through something that they have to read. Because of this, even European films which feature American actors can have difficulty getting released here. Yes, we have another installment of "I've heard of these people, why I haven't I heard of this movie?" with Fragile, a movie which, up until now, has been released just about everywhere else in the world besides the U.S.

Fragile is set on the Isle of Wight, an island off of the coast of England. Mercy Falls Children's Hospital, an ancient structure, is set to close, and only a few patients remain in the building. American nurse Amy Nicholls (Calista Flockhart) arrives to work the nightshift during the last few nights before the patients are transferred. Handyman Roy (Colin McFarlane) gives her a tour and explains that the second floor of the hospital has been sealed off for years. Amy will be overseeing a small group of children, and immediately befriends one named Maggie (Yasmin Murphy), who explains that she plays with a girl named Charlotte, who she refers to as the "mechanical girl". When Amy asks about this, she's rebuffed. Amy begins to look into the history of the hospital and why the former night-nurse left and she starts to hear some stories involving ghosts. Dr. Marcus (Richard Roxburgh), the physician whom Amy assists, is clearly a compassionate man, but he doesn't believe Amy's stories. Thus, when the children are threatened by odd occurrences in the night, she takes it upon herself to help them.

Fragile offers all of these ingredients, but not nearly enough. The story plays like John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 played out in a hospital instead of a police station. As the hospital is closing, the staff is limited and the phones have been cut off. Into this setting comes Amy, a nurse with a checkered past. It's never made clear why she's hired for such a short stint (yes, once again, I did hear about her past) and if she'll be following the patients to the new hospital. Despite being a new arrival, Amy immediately begins to probe the mystery. In fact, she seems to shirk her duties to play sleuth, and this feels very artificial. We also never learn why this particular group of children are the last being transferred. Although we watch Amy get acclimated to the dark environment of the hospital, not much happens during the film's first hour. There's a lot of talk, but little action, and none of the creepy images which we've come to expect from these movies. Things do pick up in the third act and the plot twist is satisfying, but this can't save the movie from coming off as boring. Balaguero appears to be making an attempt to build mood and suspense, but the far-fetched story and lack of quality visuals keeps the movie from ever being scary. Again, the finale and the revelation of the mystery is intriguing, but the sluggishness of the first hour keep it from feeling satisfying.

For this review, Fragile was viewed on a preview "check disc". Because of this, there is no way to accurate assess the audio or video quality of the release. As the release date approaches, I hope to get a final-product copy and I will update this review with an overview of how the DVD looks and sounds. Also, none of the extras which will be on the final release were not present on this disc.