Movie:Orphan

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer, CCH Pounder

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Genre: Thriller

A dynamite performance by young Isabelle Fuhrman makes this horror-thriller worth watching; you'll believe a kid can freak you out.

Release Date: 20-Aug-2009

URL: http://orphan-movie.warnerbros.com/

Language: English

Distributor: 20th Century Fox/Warner Bros. Pictures

Synopsis:

A family adopts a girl from an orphanage and soon, everyone except the Clueless Dad realises there's something wrong … really, really wrong … with the kid.

My Comment/Review(s):

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer, CCH Pounder

The more I thought about this movie over the days since I watched it, the more I appreciate what a great job young Isabelle Fuhrman does as the title character – an outwardly charming but sinister, manipulative and of course murderous little girl.

Sure, there is a lot about her performance that is immediately obvious and commendable, but when you think about the way this (then) 11-year-old totally owns the role, then she becomes the overriding reason to watch the film.

If you consider it in the context of the twist that comes near the end, then Fuhrman's achievement here is even more praiseworthy.

Orphan is not too different from previous weirdo-in-our-midst, family-in-distress tales, with the difference being perhaps the short stature of its antagonist. (Okay, there was Leprechaun, but let's get back down to Earth a bit here.)

Just don't let Esther's (Fuhrman) well-mannered-little-girl looks deceive you; in my humble opinion, this villainess is truly one of the most memorable new movie "monsters" to come our way in a long time.

Esther makes her way into the Coleman household shortly after Kate (Farmiga) suffers a miscarriage while pregnant with her third child. Hubby John (Sarsgaard) chances upon Esther at a meet-the-prospective-parents party at a nearby orphanage, and soon the girl is one of the Colemans.

ROOM WITH A VIEW: 'Oooh, I just love my new room. I'll put my shrine to Daddy over here, my Alienate & Torment Mommy message board right there, and the bed's big enough to hide a corpse under.'

While Esther seems so sweet and eager to please, her new kid brother Daniel (Bennett, Star Trek's young young James T. Kirk) isn't too thrilled.

Kid sister Max (Engineer) is thrilled to have a big sister around the house, but it's not long before the poor child gets caught up in Esther's web of deceit and manipulation.

Now, given Fuhrman's excellent job as the creepy kid and director Collet-Sera's knack for wringing suspense out of the most innocuous moment of domestic prying, Orphan would seem to have the makings of a really excellent film.

Indeed it does, except for two things I had a problem with. One, and I'm not up on psychology so I could be wrong, but it seems a bit odd that a family grieving over the loss of an infant would seek to adopt a 12-year-old girl.

DETENTION TIME: 'Sent to the principal again ... I *have* to remember that it's not on to jam pencils into my classmates' ears when they make fun of my ribbons.'

Another, is that John is written as such a, well, write-off that it seems like a lazy way to neutralize the one character who could conceivably counter Esther's nastiness: make him so stupid/clueless that he can't see what's going on even when it – well, you'll see; and make him such a d*ckhead that the audience doesn't give a crap what he does or what happens to him.

Backing up Fuhrman ably are Farmiga (excellent as a semi-hysterical foil to Esther) and adorable little Engineer, who is hearing impaired in real life, as Max.

The Max-Esther dynamic may seem quite disturbing and stir up its share of controversy over the extremes that the younger child gets forced into because of her big "sister", but I'd say this is one of the times when "It's only a movie" applies.

Orphan, let down only by the familiarity of its premise and the seemingly arbitrary blockheaded nature of several key characters, is still for the most part a well-acted and suspenseful thriller.

And it's got the creepiest little girl I can remember since Wednesday Addams – though nowhere near as charming.

Surfing: http://orphan-movie.warnerbros.com/

Making The Grade: