Orphan – Movie Review
- Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
- Starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Furhman, CCH Pounder, Aryana Engineer and Jimmy Bennett
This was a film I was on the fence about seeing in the theater, but once the rather surprised sounding positive reviews started to trickle in, I made sure to check it out sooner than later.
John (Sarsgaard) and Kate (Farmiga) are a seemingly happy couple who have suffered a recent tragedy, Kate’s miscarriage of their third child. The launch into the adoption of a child, and during the open house at the orphanage John wanders upstairs, away from the happy children playing together to discover the one loner type painting alone in a classroom. Kate and Sister Abigail (Pounder) follow him up there, where he and young Esther (Furhman) are hitting it of. Sister Abigail seems a tad apprehensive at first, but changes her tune when the couple seems to be getting to know Esther with ease. The girl is a talented artist and seems very intelligent and self aware, a 9 yr old Russian whose previous adoptive family died in a tragic fire in their home. The couple decides to proceed with the adoption ASAP, as they both have a good feeling about this child. They seem to ignore her rather dour Victorian-era style of dress, which includes ribbons worn on her neck and wrists, which she never removes and the nuns have given up on changing about her.
Esther is brought home to meet her new siblings, brother Daniel (Bennett) and young Max (Engineer), who is hearing impaired and wears hearing aids to assist her in reading lips based on the small amount she can discern. Esther has already started learning Max’s name in sign language, eager to fit in with her new family unit, and Max takes to her quickly. Not so for Daniel, who seems to resent the attention being paid to this odd stranger, but this is chalked up to childish resentment and ignored by his parents, because it’s that kind of movie and wouldn’t get very far otherwise.
John and Kate (who we get the idea haven’t been intimate in some time) finally find the spark again, right there in the kitchen, which is of course accidentally viewed by Esther. What a way to welcome your new adopted child, with a view of you bent over the island in the kitchen and your hubby hunching away at you from behind. Kate approaches Esther about what she saw, hem-hawing around a bit about ‘when mommies and daddies love each other’, to which Esther replies that “they fuck?” Kate is a bit taken aback by her frank nature, but John doesn’t see any problem, beginning a trend that will last the rest of the film: John stridently ignoring any weird activity related to Esther in favor of selling out his loved ones for possible injury or death. Seriously, John is ridiculously obtuse about everything involving Esther, he immediately gives this stranger the benefit of doubt the moment she walks into his home; it’s just weird.
Esther is introduced at school, drawing the immediate attention of one of the popular girls, who mocks her style of dress and mannerisms, so we’re not too surprised or sympathetic when Esther exacts revenge on her later at the local playground. I mean, not to sound like some kinda sociopath, but in Esther’s defense, the little girl was something of a See You Next Tuesday for no real reason and kind of deserved some amount of retaliation. John questions Esther when her victim claims she was involved in her fall, but seems to accept her denials. Kate on the other hand has begun to think there’s definitely something wrong, but her ideas are shot down due to the various cracks that are being revealed in their happy family facade. It seems John and Kate may not be as cozy as we might’ve been led to believe; Kate has struggled with alcoholism, and one of her episodes almost saw Max drowned in the pond out back of their home. Her mental state is called into question by John whenever any of Esther’s activities are put under scrutiny, and it gets rather frustrating quickly for those of us watching.
Sister Abigail is questioned over what she actually knows about Esther’s past or background, and Esther devises a plan using Max to derail the Sister’s attempts to dig too deep into the past, sealing Max’s silence with her involvement in a brutal crime. The film somewhat surprisingly (admirably?) puts the children in a helluva lot of physical and mental distress, it actually made me rather tense watching the film, and Collet-Serra also goes for several false scares or fake outs that work well, though he may use the technique once or twice too often. You can only swell the music a bit as a door closes and reveals… nothing so many times before the seasoned horror viewer will say “again?” with a tad of frustration.
The film looks great, the kid is creepy as fuck, and the amount of violence directed at children is surprisingly high, I’d say this is a damned fine entry into the evil kid sub-genre, and well worth a peep if you can catch a matinee. There’s some twists and turns, most of which you’ll probably see coming, but it’s still a fun ride and deserving of your time, especially if you’re tired of the constant re-make trend in the genre.
Check this one out.
Trailer
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