Orphan (2009)

Even though I didn’t sleep as well as I had liked last night, and the fact that my friend cancled on me, I still went to go see Orphan like I promised I would do. I think I can offically say that my writing hat is back on again. Orphan is a film that I had picked out earlier in the year to make sure to watch. From the trailer of the film, it reminded me some of The Good Son. As much as I like seeing kids being bumped off in films, an evil little kid is just as good. While an evil boy is all well and good, it is the evil little girls that get to me even more. I can almost expect a boy to be mean, but not so much a little girl. I know they can be, since I have a bit of a mean streak in me, but it isn’t shown as much as it is in most boys. At least that is my opinion.

Orphan starts out with Kate (Vera Farmiga) arriving at the hospital very pregnant. John (Peter Sarsgaard), her husband, tells the nurse at the desk that Kate is having labor pains. As Kate is pushed off in a wheelchair, we see a trail of blood being left by her. On the table she is told that her child is dead, and then out come some scary looking instruments. After a few seconds, and some nasty sounding sound effects, Kate is presented with a bloody baby girl. Kate then wakes up from her dream. It seems to be a recurring dream since her daughter was still born. While not her first child, she is taking it very hard. Kate is trying hard not to drink anymore, since it nearly cost her another child. Kate and John have been throwing the idea idea of adobting a child, and Kate final decides that she is ready to do that. They head to the local orphanage where they eventually meet Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Esther is not playing with the other children, but instead is by herself painting a picture. John is the first to meet her, and Esther seems to open up to John and Kate. Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder) likes what she sees, and helps the adobtion go through. They take her home to meet Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) and Max (Aryana Engineer), Esther’s new borther and sister. Max takes to Esther fairly quickly, while Daniel doesn’t like that Esther is getting all the attention. It soon becomes clear that not all is as it seems with Esther. Will they be able to figure out what Esther’s secret is before it is too late?

I was a little confused over how long it had been since Kate lost her third child. I thought it had been a few months at first, but then they explain that Kate had not had a drink for close to a year. That confusion aside, I did appreciate that they took the time to give Kate, and the family, a bit of a back story to work with. Her loss explains a lot later in the film, as far as her reactions to things that Esther does. It wasn’t a lot of character developement, but it was just enough at the same time. Outside of the opening scene, which captures a nightmare perfectly, Orphan starts out a little on the slow side. Even when Esther joins the family, there is still a slow build to things that come fairly soon. Things are brought to a build by having Esther throwing some pretty mean looks at people. They also trick us into thinking something bad is about to happen, or a jump scare, and then nothing happens at all. I liked this, since when something does actually happen, it comes as more of a surprise. Once things do start to happen, we quickly realize that Esther is a very mean person. This was a very big plus. Often times in films like this, the child acts mean, but doesn’t do a whole lot. The down side of this is that some people need to act stupid about what is going on, despite over welming evidence that not all is well. Orphan does manage to reach a point where you are thinking, “Come on already! Open your eyes man.”

Orphan doesn’t get real gory, but it doesn’t skimp on the blood either. We get a couple of broken bones, a beat down with a hammer, and a stabbing. It does get a little graphic at times, but nothing that goes over the top like some films do. All the effects were well done, and I thought there was just the right amount of them as well. The acting was also well done. Vera Farmiga does an excelent job with her role. She is very believable as a mother who has lost a child. All the child actors did a great job as well. Isabelle Fuhrman is only slightly older than she is supposed to be in the film, but pulls off being much more mature than her real age, of 12 actually. New comer Aryana Engineer plays the part of a child that can’t hear well at all. She does have hearing problems in real life, but not as bad as shown in the film. Even though she never speaks, I still thought she did a wonderful job at acting.

Orphan seems to be getting a bad rap with some people out there. It started as soon as the trailer came out to be honest. There are some people that truly believe this film will change people’s minds about adobting an older child. After watching the film, I know it has changed my mind. No wait, I wasn’t considering it anyway, so I guess I don’t count. Seriously though, if you go to a horror movie, and it manages to change your mind on something as important as adobting a child, you don’t deserve to have a child anyway. There is a thing called common sense, if you believe everything a movie tells you, you are sorely lacking in it. Just had to get that out there.

There were some things about the plot that I had issues with, one being that the orphanage wants the adobtive partents to send them dental records, which they should have already had. Plot issues aside, I thought this was a well made film, with some bite. Even though the body count is low, it was still nice to see a film that wasn’t pulling its punches. Except for once. There is one person I felt should have been killed off, and I guess was in the script, but they decided against it. I knew they twist ending going in, another site didn’t give it away in its review, but did in the opinion poll. I didn’t start out all that impressed with the film, but as it goes along, I was surprised at how good it was becoming. A little bit of comedy thrown in at the right times really helped. If you are looking for a film that doesn’t mind throwing punches, this is a film for you. I hope it does well at the box office. Of course, that is all up to you out there. I hope everyone gives it a chance, as it deserves that.

4 out of 5 At least one person deserved to die. I will let you decide who it was.