Orphan

Orphan

Orphan - Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and Isabelle Fuhrman - Rated R

This movie isn't bad or anything, it's just that I am sick of the "evil child" movies. And this one doesn't offer anything groundbreaking. To be honest, I prefer Vera Famiga's other evil kid movie, 2007's Joshua. It's a bit strange that she has made two movies like this in a span of three years. If you like this type of movie, I honestly suggest checking out Joshua instead of Orphan. I will say this for Orphan, though; Isabelle Fuhrman plays evil quite well. Oh, and Peter Sarsgaard is in this and that always helps, though I wish he would start taking some more interesting roles.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Orphan

Me and my sister went on a double date with two guys I work with and we went to see the movie Orphan. I was very excited to see this movie cause it looked so good. This movie was ten times better then I ever thought it would be. It's about this couple who adopt a 9 year old girl named Esther and soon realize that she's not so innocent as she may seem to be. There start to be accidents which leads up to deaths and Esther is always in the middle of it.

In the trailer it said you would never guess her secret and it's right. I went with the obvious and thought she was the devil's daughter like Damien in the Omen cause she acts just like him, but let me tell you I was way off. I wont tell you what her secret is in case you go see it but whatever theory you might have of the secret it's most likely wrong cause it's something that wouldn't even come across your mind. I was speechless when it told everyone what was up with Esther cause it was nothing compared to what I was thinking of and your like "who would of thought of that?!"

I absolutely loved this movie, it was so awesome. I don't ever clap in movies cause I think clapping in movies is freakin stupid, but this movie was so good I actually clapped in it. I was very impressed with everything about this movie, I also liked how they put a deaf little girl in the movie. Being hearing impaired and partly deaf myself it's always nice to see when they include deafness in a movie. This was the best horror movie of 2009 hands down and I was very pleased. I give this movie 5 out of 5 skulls.

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Recommendations: The Amityville Horror, Children of the Corn , My Bloody Valentine

JennyB<br />
http://memoirsofascreamqueen.blogspot.com/

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed View of ORPHAN

And yeah, i know, for all my bragging about movies i get to see before you Yanks, this one has only just come out in Yeman and it was released last summer in the Sates. Now you get why i boast on those rare occasions i get the shot.

Final Proof: 2½ Shots 

You know how you drink with cool kids in their house? They’ve got these vapid parents and insipid siblings and porcelain knick-knacks that sit bored on the shelf.  The music is monotonous and the second hand on the grandfather clock is too tired to budge. The air is dead, the light is dying, the dog is slow, the beer is flat, the gin is swill and the rum is runs of the mill. Still, there’s the one kid who’s quick as a Zippo, cute as a butt ‘n’ funny as hell. i mean, the kid’s not so great you forget you feel like you’re treading water in quicksand but at least you’re entertained enough you don’t need to drink yourself as unconscious as the wallpaper.  Orphan is kinda like that.

i wasn’t too terribly impressed by Orphan and i’m gonna blame it on Jaume Collet-Serra, the director. He sets the pace right at the very beginning with a dream sequence and i hate dream sequences. They’re a quick cop out to get something exciting going without forcing consequences on anyone. This is just one cheap trick [hey! maybe that's why "Surrender" is in the movie!] Collet-Serra pulls from his bag of cheap tricks. Orphan is a lesson in horror movie directing clichés, from the close ups on the face to the tight shots on the backs so we have no idea what’s happening in the room, from snatching back shower curtains to the loud blasts of music telling us when we should be startled. The suspense is efficient, but Jaume breaks no new ground here.

Not to mention the cascade of WTF? moments:

Ooh, i’m in the hospital and i have my I-Phone right here that i just got a call from Estonia on and they told me my daughter is a whackjob serial killer… What should i do? Call the police? No, call my husband, who’s at home with the girl. He doesn’t answer… Should i call the police now? No, i know, i’ll wait until i get dressed and run out of the hospital and find my car in the parking lot and start driving home and then, when i’m speeding down an icy road in a snowstorm, that’s when i’ll call 911.

WTF!?

But Orphan wasn’t a total buzz kill. There was Vera Farmiga doing a more than solid job as Little Orphan Baddie’s new mom, Kate Coleman. There was Peter Sarsgaard holding up his end as best he could as Raggedy Brigandy’s daddy (and i’d love it if one of y’all could tell me where i know this actor from—yes, i’ve checked imdb up, down and all over). But man of all mans, Isabelle Fuhrman impressed the hell out of  me.

She filmed the part of Esther when she was freaking 11 years old and she owned //githe role, drove it around and took it to town. She absolutely absorbed all of the intricacies of the character. The part didn’t require a lot of range but man, did she go deep. Remember Nathalie Portman in Léon: The Professional? Remember Kirsten Dunst in Interview With A Vampire? Carve it in the bar: We’re gonna be hearing as much from Isabelle Fuhrman as we do about those other girls. Sex: ½ Shot

Move along, nothing to see here—literally.

Here’s the notes i jotted:

• A shot of boys in a tree house looking at a Playboy
• Vera [Farmiga] sex scene from the waist up in a bra
• Cool erotic paintings [all over Esther's bedroom walls]

Here’s a peek at what Vera in a bra looks looks like…
Here’s a little one for the ladies (and the undecided):
Drink: 1½ Shots

A quick thumb through my notes:

• Mother is a non-practicing alcoholic
• She doesn’t want to go to AA [she quit alone]
• She stops herself from drinking wine [twice]
• Later we learn that she quit after passing out and her daughter fell into a pond [rescued by father]
• Beer at dinner for dad
• Father downs a bottle of wine by himself
• He gets way more f*cked up on one bottle than me

Rock & Roll: 0 Shots

Boring Technical Crap

Written by: David Johnson  (screenplay) and Alex Mace (story)

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring

Isabelle Fuhrman – Esther

Vera Farmiga – Kate Coleman

Lorry Ayers – Joyce

Peter Sarsgaard – John Coleman

Bottom Line

See it, just so you can say you saw Isabelle Fuhrman back when…

Al K Hall<br />
Functional Alcoholic Slurperson<br />
(No, REALLY. Google &amp;quot;Slurperson&amp;quot; if you don't believe me.)

Last updated: 2010-04-02 18:43:55 by user08

Orphan

Starring: Peter Saarsgard, Vera Farmiga, Isabelle Fuhrman Thriller, 2009

A married couple that already has two children adopt a 9 year old girl. She seems to be the perfect new daughter at first but the mother quickly realizes that Esther isn't what she seems. Terrible things seem to happen when she is around and their family begins to fall apart as she pitts one person against the other. The mom is suspicious and made out to be merely paranoid and ill, while Esther has the father wrapped around her little finger. The mom searches for clues as to the origins of their new daughter but if she doesn't find answers soon enough it might be too late to save her family.

• Classic story line about the child who is a "bad seed." Accordingly she appears charming to some but shows her evil side to others and has amazing powers of manipulation.
• This movie had the that classic story line but with a little twist that I didn't see coming.
• Very action packed and engaging.
• They really picked the perfect little girl to play Esther.
• It was perfectly scary while keeping me entertained and interested.

4 Stars

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Just Me

Last updated: 2010-03-13 22:36:05 by user05

Orphan

Orphan was one that almost got away from me in theaters, but I made it and I'm glad I did, because I love killer kid movies and I thought this one was a blast. There was a certain sense of meanness to this film, a meanness that you do not often find in current theatrical horror, let alone ones with kids playing a big part. Isabelle Fuhrman brought to life a very worthy child monster to add to the killer kid klub with the character of Esther and even outside of her solid performance, fellow youngster Aryana Engineer was amazing as the little deaf girl, Max.

Recommendations: High Plains Drifter , Dalkomhan insaeng , Dial M for Murder

‘Orphan’ Suspenseful and Intense, Although Unoriginal

The storyline ofOrphan, the latest from director Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax), is extremely unoriginal. An adopted child, Esther, threatens a family and makes the mother and father turn on each other. Yawn. When you see the demented "Esther", you'll immediately recall Damien from The Omen or Adam from Godsend. But right where you think thatOrphan is just another devil-child movie (which is about a half-hour in), the film snaps. It breaks away from that tired category and Collet-Serra makes it his own. The horror takes off when the child is introduced to the family. Esther starts out sweet and kind, however the mother Kate (a wonderful Vera Farmiga) is soon suspicious of the nine-year-old girl after she can surprisingly play the piano, after admitting that she cannot. "She lied to us!"

The acting median was mediocre. Isabelle Furham (Esther): great. If you search Furham on Google and notice what she actually looks like not in costume…damn! She nails every scene with utter creepiness, making Orphan an actual, legit horror movie. Not a slash-em-up bloodfest and certainly not a horror/comedy like Drag Me to Hell or Zombieland. Peter Sarsgaard (John, Kate's husband): bad. Sarsgaard, I've disliked his entire career. The fictional personality on him in every movie is always the same! I could take his character John and put him in the part he played in Jarhead and I wouldn't know the difference. A great actress besides Furham was C.C.H Pounder, who was Sister Abigail. Abigail starts off saying that Esther would be a perfect addition to the Coleman family, but later goes back on her word. The terrifying emotion that the role called for, she hit spot-on. The Shield actress made me wish that she played a bigger part in Orphan. I can't wait to witness her work in James Cameron's Avatar this winter.

Orphan is no Omen, although it tops Godsend on the terror scale. Collet-Serra's style of filmmaking is hit-or-miss, and it sucks that Orphan was a hit up until the final scene, where he freaks the fuck out with his camera. Critics hate on this while audiences love it. The reaction of one fanatic pretty much sums up what I thought as well: Orphan has the making of a horror cult hit.

3.5/5 stars.

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-Nick

Orphan

Ah, the twist.

The crazy-ass, only-in-Hollywood, how-do-they-think-that-shit-up twist.

This movie depends entirely on its third act twist -- it is the reason the movie exists -- so it's pretty much all I'm going to talk about here. If you don't want to know what's behind the much-advertised tagline "There's something wrong with Esther," then stop reading.

Okay. So who is Esther? She's a nine-year-old Russian orphan with thick eyebrows who needs a loving home and family. Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard play a nice professional couple who lost a child to a miscarriage some years back and want to give an unfortunate orphan the loving home and family they were prepared to give their own child.

Let the horror begin.

In a plot that does for adoption what "Rosemary's Baby" did for natural childbirth, Esther starts out creepy, turns violent and eventually becomes homicidal.

The steps that get us there are perfectly competent in a standard Hollywood way. Nearly every scene may be telegraphed well in advance, but there are no boring stretches and the fact that the audience has superior position -- we know Esther's a screwball way before anyone else does -- provides some decent tension.

But just how much of a screwball is Esther? Suspicious mom Vera Farmiga follows a trail of evidence (by Google and cell phone) that leads back to Russia, where she gets in touch with the good people at the Saarne Institute. That's the orphanage from which Esther was first taken.

OR IS IT???

It turns out, the Saarne Institute is not an orphanage. It's an insane asylum. And unbalanced nine year-old Esther is not an unbalanced nine year-old but a violently nutty thirty-three year old with something called hypopituitarism which has stunted her growth. She ends up trying to seduce nice-guy dad Peter Sarsgaard before killing him in a vicious stabbing scene.

Vera Farmiga returns home too late to save Sarsgaard, but just in time to participate in a classic sneak-around-the-darkened-house set piece, which climaxes with a fight in freezing cold water under the ice covering the surface of the backyard pond.

I know we've all had days like that.

It's easy to imagine how a story like "Orphan" would pitch well in a studio exec's office. Presumably that's how the project got off the ground. And I'm okay with that. The twist is surprising enough, and fresh enough -- and it's certainly loony enough -- to take a crack at making a weirdly unsettling horror flick. The resulting film only moderately achieves this goal, but at least it wasn't a total waste of celluloid.

Some movies just are what they are, ya know?

"Orphan" is a party game of a movie, where the audience is invited to try to figure out the ending before the movie reveals it. And as far as party games go, "Orphan" is kind of a fun one.

SCORE:

How Accomplished: 44/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 64/100

Orphan = A surprisingly funny thrill-fest that delievers when it counts most.

Removing the innocence from a child is a theme often explored by  films in the horror genre because, quite frankly, an evil child is a  pretty twisted notion that goes against the grain of everything that  most cultures concede: children are sinless, joy-filled beings that  can’t replicate or have the capacity for evil because their experiences  (or lack of them) can’t possibly allow for an authentically evil act to  be perpetrated.

Even horror films like THE EXORICST and THE OMEN validate the  monstrosities contained within the children by attributing their losses  of innocence to demonic forces which have possessed the children,  effectively removing their “God given” child-like qualities.

Films that portray a child who is actually evil are far more  infrequent, which was one of the main reasons why I chose to see ORPHAN  over my vacation on the Outer Banks.

I still remember the backlash Macaulay Caulkin (and his parents)  received for his role in THE GOOD SON, a terrible movie seemingly  produced only to capitalize financially on the strikingly “wild” turn  from Caulkin, whose overnight celebrity status from his role as Kevin  McAllister the cute, and loveable protagonist from HOME ALONE made him a  household commodity.
NOTE: I have always found it interesting that Kevin McAllister, in my  mind, was WAY more evil and sadistic then Henry Evans, Caulkin’s  character from THE GOOD SON.

Go back and watch HOME ALONE—Kevin McAllister was a seriously twisted  little fucker.  It would take a few minor edits/addition of some gore  for HOME ALONE to resemble a SAW-like torture-porn genre flick.  Seriously.

He pretty much tortures the shit out of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.   Cartoon-like, yes, but goddamn what an example to set for all the kids  out there.  Someone invades your home? Rig that motherfucker with traps  and laugh evilly as you burn, break, and shatter the bodies of the  invaders. Toss a brick of a building and knock out some teeth, watch  through a peep hole as the invader steps on a rusty nail. KILL THEM  KEVIN!

If Kevin McAllister and Henry Evans got into a fight, Im pretty sure  the result would be Evans mangled and bloody corpse lying on the floor  of the McAllister’s mansion in Chicago, his parents standing there,  shaking their heads as if to say, “Kevin, go to your room while we clean  up this mess.  You have to sleep with Fuller tonight.”

ORPHAN is nothing like any of these films, which is why I enjoyed it  so much.  I was looking forward to this film last year; when I read that  Peter Sarsgaard had signed on to make this film.  I’m a big fan of his  and knowing the careful approach that Sarsgaard takes to choosing his  films led me to believe that there was something special about this  project.  I was not disappointed.

ORPHAN has already caused a minor disturbance among advocates  of orphanages and the services that provide adults with the ability  to provide shelter/care for children who have the unfortunate  circumstances of being alone in the world.  ORPHAN could care less for  charity.  Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) is evil incarnate and it was  thrilling watching her slowly reveal herself as a vile and disturbing  force to be reckoned with.
The films pace is flawless.

Jaume Collet-Serra improves greatly from his first directorial effort, 2005’s HOUSE OF WAX,  which suffered not from its direction, but from its ridiculously awful  script and equally lame cast.

I mean, come on, Paris Hilton or Vera Farmiga? I’m sure Collet-Serra  felt relief in ALL stages of ORPHAN’s production because of its strong  cast and original script.  Saarsgard and Farmiga’s chemistry on screen  was believable and realistic.  This allows the film to take liberties in  its third act when it becomes borderline ridiculous, approaching levels  of campiness that I did not expect heading into the movie.

What begins as a terrifying and maddening psychological game of cat  and mouse between Esther and Kate (Vera Farmiga) eventually blossoms  into an entertaining thrill-fest with a resolution that will leave the  right crowd cheering  out loud for Kate, who is identified early on as  the films protagonist.

ORPHAN plays off of the horrors that every parent subconsciously  dreads: losing a child. Even in a still birth, the loss of a child is  something that no mother can ever truly get over.  Kate’s deep emotional  scars and troubles/struggles with alcoholism serve as personal demons  that Kate is perpetually battling from within….until she chooses to  adopt a child with her husband John (Peter Sarsgaard).  Pressured into  making a change by her therapist and husband, Kate reluctantly agrees to  move on from her past by adopting the mysterious but innocent seeming  Ester, a Russian orphan with an unknown past that seems like a perfect  fit for their upper-class/privileged home in ritzy Connecticut.

Of course, the movie follows conventions from then on: the mysterious  journal that Esther keeps hidden (only enough so that Kate will  eventually find it though), the mind games that make Kate appear to be  crazy to the outside world, the gradual increase in violent acts,  etc.   The film relies on convention until its climax, when the script makes  its bold and fairly shocking revelation on Esters origin.

ORPHAN also returns to a very important element of suspense that is  too often misused in modern horror: the score.  Music and sound FX play a  crucial role in developing the story. Overall, I was highly pleased  with the film and was entertained to levels that I haven’t felt in  awhile in horror movies that hit the big screen.

How does the movie compare to other films from the director?

Since Jaume Collet-Serra’s only other contribution to film was his  sloppy and uninspired remake of HOUSE OF WAX, I think this film is a  tremendous improvement that shows what a good cast and a good script can  do for a director. I left out the word “good” in front of director in  hopes that he will follow up ORPHAN with a film equally as well made.

Is the movie effective?

Yes, ORPHAN relies on convention and common horror elements for a  majority of the film until the third act, when it becomes an all out  laugh and scream fest that is extremely entertaining if you don’t take  it seriously.

Would I watch the film again?

Yes, I would gladly share this film with someone else or watch it on a  rainy day.

Best aspect of the film?

Strong pacing + Strong performances by the child actors

Worst aspect of the film?

The tone shifts frequently, which might turn off the casual viewer

Final grade + viewing suggestion?

86/100 “B“– A must see for horror enthusiasts, for  all others there is no need for the theater experience, but I do  recommend giving the film a shot.  Its far better then most of the  Horror remakes/”Japanese” ghost films that are consistently coming out  these days.

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Last updated: 2010-02-22 09:54:30 by hypothesisspits

ORPHAN

RATING 6/10

BOTTOM LINE: Isabelle Fuhrman puts in an excellent performance as the psychotic Esther, but the rest of the film is so perfunctory and lamely directed that there is nothing to really recommend it.

THE GOOD: Watching a great performance from a child is something to behold and 12-year old Isabelle Fuhrman does an incredible job portraying the disturbed Russian child Esther who is adopted by the somewhat dysfunctional family of Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard). Morning the loss of her still-born daughter, Kate and John decide to adopt Esther after making a warm connection on their first meeting. Everything seems to be going well until strange and bizarre accidents begin to occur. Before long, Kate suspects that Esther is up to no good, but her own issues do not allow John to believe her, leading to a tragic climax where Esther is revealed to be something much more sinister and hideous than any of them could have imagined. Scenes involving Esther manipulating each of the family members, particularly the two children, are involving thanks to Fuhrman’s performance, and she somehow manages to convey a deeply cold malevolence that is quite watchable. The ending where the truth about Esther is revealed is a welcome surprise. “Orphan” relies on its intriguing premise and Fuhrman’s performance to create scenes of tension and character suspense, and in this respect, the film works on some levels.

THE BAD: Despite Fuhrman’s best efforts in the role of Esther, the film’s direction is very lame and pedestrian, and contradicts all the tension and suspense that is otherwise being created by the actors. There are numerous false scares (ie scares that lead to nothing) that are absolutely unnecessary and become quite ridiculous, and they denigrate the intensity of the actual scares when they do come. Subtlety is not a strong suit of this film either, with a number of sequences of Esther’s violent behaviour taken way over the top, with one stand out example being when Esther brutally murders a nun from the orphanage with a hammer. Seeing the nun’s head bashed with the hammer several times was not needed to get the point across. The John Coleman character is also badly written; he’s either completely stupid or not that thoughtful considering he takes Esther’s side most of the time, and he cannot seem to work out that everything bad in their family started when Esther entered their lives. All of these factors make for a film that could have been ten times more terrifying if the filmmakers had not relied on cheap tricks or having too much over the top violence.

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Super Marcey's Orphan Review

Rating: 3/5


A couple who have two children (a daughter who is deaf) decide in order to move on after the loss of their third child, that they will adopt a child. They go to an orphanage and are won over by foreign Esther, so they take her in and it isn't long before things start happening and Esther is not as innocent as she seems.

Ah the good ol' evil child horror film, there is something about them isn't there? Because they are a child and are doing evil things, it just ends up being scary? Well I didn't find it scary in Orphan, I actually found a lot of this film rather silly. It has a great set up, you get to know the family and they their longing to help give a child a new home. Esther easily wins you over right away, she seems sweet and intelligent but a little old fashioned. Then her strange behaviour kicks in and the evil starts to show, and this is where it gets a little ridiculous.

I felt certain scenes and bits of music where there just to get a rise out of you, they didn't actually achieve anything and it felt just a bit silly. It seemed far fetched that no one would believe the mother played by Vera Farmiga (Who is really good in the role I might add), and take the side of Esther just because she is a child (played in a very creepy fashion by Isabelle Fuhrman). The husband played by Peter Sarsgaard takes her side no matter what and I thought it seemed just a bit too convenient for the plot to progress to the really silly and over the top third act.

While this film was ridiculous and over the top I actually didn't mind it, it was paced well for the most part. It had a good amount of character developement as well so you could get to know the family. It has a bit of a twist ending, which I knew what it was coming in but it also meant certain things made sense to me. I didn't mind the twist, it was something different but I thought what came next was a bit too over the top and it lost me. The film itself is really well acted, and that certainly helped it a lot. They had a really good cast and they certainly didn't let the film down, it made it better then what it could have been. Over all I felt Orphan was an average horror flick but a decent entry into the evil child genre. Not one I could easily recommend but worth checking out for Vera fans and Peter fans for sure.

(Review written Feb 18th 2010, first posted on SuperMarcey.com)

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Recommendations: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009), Milk, Hurt Locker, The (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)

Movie Review - Orphan

Orphan starts with a violent and uncomfortable birthing scene, a clip which immediately hooked me. "Huh," I said, alternating glances between the screen and my flip-flops, "that's pretty grotesque."

The fact of the matter was that I wasn't expecting a film about a killer child to be so exceedingly violent. I was wrong. Orphan is in fact a pretty gory movie, never losing focus on the kills which drive the plot. It's a good thing, too, because the lengthy run time makes necessary these action sequences. Once we are thrown into the lives of the couple (Vera Farmiga and Peter Saarsgard) we're following, it's a dry trek for a half hour or more as we are introduced to the family's problems and their subsequent adoption of Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a unique girl who seems an exact match to her new parents. We're treated to a lot of rising action as we continue to meet Esther, progressing more or less predictably based on the trailers of the film. Esther has a few strange "quirks," but she's an orphan and is still having adjustment issues. Fine and dandy.

But the next part of the film is where I lost a bit of my enthrallment in its plot. Esther is weird, understandably - and when she showcases her more violent tendencies, she becomes dangerous - but she never seems evil or foreboding. In fact, I never saw her as more than a minor problem in the family's household until she started murdering people.

Some events are blown out of proportion; for instance, Esther likes to lock the door when she takes a bath. Big deal. It's not that strange - she has just moved into a new house, after all, and wants to keep some of her privacy - but her mom thinks this is just plain weird. Conversely, some parts are underestimated. When Esther's caretaker from the orphanage turns up missing after visiting her, only the mother questions whether Esther has some involvement with the matter.

To be quite honest, I had a very hard time believing the father character at all, given the fact that he seemed to be blind to everything going on around him. Any attempts to characterize him more than the exposition fall flat (a womanizer? a kid guy? an artist?). His personality is all over the place, and the only thing that stays consistent is his inability to come to grips with the fact that Esther is crazy as shit.

But I can understand, in a way, why it might be hard to take Esther seriously. She doesn't feel menacing or creepy like more successful child horror movies portray their children. Throughout the film, we know Esther is messed up and we know she does everything that the characters think she's done. There's no supernatural tone to it; it's like we've got the evidence and are just waiting for the parents to put her away. Instead, most of Orphan's latter scenes are devoted to slightly maniacal actions that, again, fail to deliver more than minor scares. Esther is, let's face it, trying too hard to be evil. It's just not in her.

Orphan tries to scare its audience, that's for sure. The frights are posed so that many cliched scares are actually just toying with you, trying to get a rise out of you to get you when you least expect it. The problem with this technique is that many have tried this, and instead of being forward-thinking, people are expecting that the filmmakers are expecting the audience to be tricked. In a roundabout way, it again becomes cliched. Tough to get around, but something that must be pointed out for the film because of its lack of atmosphere.

It's not all bad, though. There's some great gore effects here, especially a broken bone that will have many grabbing their arms. Most satisfying, however, is when Farmiga gives Esther a giant slap to the face and then smashes her foot into her face. I've never seen a better kick!

Orphan's mediocre at best, providing a lot of the same routine with a new twist that's admittedly kind of cool, but plot elements don't add up (how is Esther not caught killing her caretaker? how did no one see her shift the car from park to neutral in a crowded school parking lot?) and there's not a whole lot the film can offer besides a few gruesome kills. It's fun for a while, but the kid's just not that sinister. No wonder this Orphan is parentless.

Last updated: 2010-01-18 22:28:31 by user01

Movie Review: Orphan (2009)

In some ways, Orphan is your typical ‘child from hell’ movie.  However, it is also a superior horror/thriller that can keep you at the edge of your seat for a couple of hours.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to see the film – it had a fantastic poster (see above) and a stellar cast, but it’s also directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who was at the helm of such classics (not) such as House of Wax (2005) and Goal! 2: Living the Dream (2007).  Well, I came out of it pleasantly surprised and rather impressed.

The plot, of course, is pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t go into it too much.  The adopted child Esther is a seemingly charming 9 year-old girl who dresses weird, has a secretive past and gives one hell of a dirty stare.  Yes, it has a cliched storyline with cliched characters, but don’t let that put you off.  It’s all in the execution. 

Collet-Serra has injected much style and tension into the film, with a strong beginning and a ripper of an ending (which, even though I unfortunately guessed in advance, was still good).  He mixes it up with the voyeur cam and the POV (point-of-view) cam, and in addition to the ‘boo!’ scares, throws in the occasional ‘feint’ scare (where he sets up a ‘boo!’ shock that never comes).  Combined with the cool colour scheme, the icy surroundings and the smooth wooden house, the atmosphere is superb for a horror film.  

Collet-Serra also doesn’t shy away from the violence and the visceral shocks, which was a little unexpected as the incidents all involve young children.  And for those who think the movie will be entirely predictable, think again because not everything will go according to the way such films usually pan out.  It’s these little breaks away from the cliches that kept things interesting for me.  Oh, and there’s a dash of dark comedy as well.  Intentional or not, it was amusing.

The highest praise is reserved for the cast.  Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard are both outstanding as the parents (which you would expect from actors of their calibre), but of course it’s the title character, played by Isabelle Fuhrman, that really lifts the film to another level.  Fuhrman is really a wonderful little actress that manages to captivate the audience whenever she’s on screen.  She demands your attention.  She can be sweet, funny, scary and downright terrifying.  She makes you believe.  I can’t wait to see what she’s in next.

No doubt there are a lot of critics out there that would call Orphan trash – but really, what do people expect when they watch such a film?  It may be a little overlong (122 minutes) and totally unbelievable, but Orphan succeeds at what it set out to do – scare and shock the audience.  Can’t ask for much more than that.

4 stars out of 5!

[PS: they really shouldn't say things like 'You'll never guess her secret' in the trailers and posters because whenever they do I always end up guessing it!  Keep silent and surprise the audience!]

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PJM

Last updated: 2010-01-05 23:14:54 by user04