Orphan (Warner Brothers)
Esther Sure Doesnt Take After Annie
Let me say up front I am a sucker for horror movies that are short on gore and long on suspense. Carrie, The Omen, The Lost Boys and others of that ilk just fascinated me. Now comes Orphan, a horror movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat while also making you think.
Vera Farmiga, one of Hollywoods most talented actresses, stars as Kate. She is the mother of two and wife to John (Peter Sarsgaard). She is also a recovering alcoholic whose third child was stillborn. In other words Kate and John have some problems. This makes it surprising that they are cleared to adopt a third child, but they are.
The child they select is Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a nine year old who was born in Russia. They bring her home to join their family and to be a sister to Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) and Max (Aryana Engineer). Esther immediately bonds with Max, even learning sign language so she can communicate better with the hearing impaired child.
Things start out smoothly but soon trouble begins to follow Esther. Daniel and Max are terrified of her but cant tell their parents for fear she will do something horrible to them. Still Kate soon has feelings that not everything is as it should be with Esther, but John remains a loyal supporter.
The movie does not hide Esthers evil nature for long. The audience is witness to all of her heinous acts even if the characters on screen are not. This heightens the suspense and the chill factor. Esther will resort to murder in order to get her own way and hide all of her secrets.
The acting in this movie is great. Farmiga pulls out all the stops as a mother fearful for the safety of her family who cant get anyone to take her seriously. Sarsgaard makes John wimpily weak and lets him play right into Esthers hands. Fuhrmans Esther is icily sinister and that makes her the perfect villain for this film.
The film is rated R for profanity and violence.
Before you make any judgments about the content of the film, watch the movie. There are twists that might make you less judgmental, and believe me you wont see them coming.
Orphan is a well written, well acted, suspenseful movie that tones down the gore while ratcheting up the suspense. And that folks is just the way I like em.
I scored Orphan an adoptable 7 out of 10.
