Directed by:
Jaume Collet-SerraScreenplay:
David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrickCinematography:
Jeff CutterComposer:
John OttmanCast:
Isabelle Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Karel Roden, Aryana Engineer, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale, Rosemary Dunsmore (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
An outwardly angelic little girl displays an unforeseen devilish streak upon moving into the home of her new adoptive parents in this shocker starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga. In the aftermath of a miscarriage, prospective parents Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) find their lives turned upside down; their marriage is falling apart, and the demons of Kate's past begin manifesting themselves in a series of horrifying nightmares. Deciding that the best means of achieving some semblance of normalcy is to simply adopt, the dejected couple visits a local orphanage. There, they are both drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther. But Esther isn't as sweet as first impressions suggest, and almost immediately after welcoming the young child into their home, Kate and John suspect that something is terribly wrong with their adoptive daughter. Kate can see right through Esther's seraphic charm, though her attempts to convince everyone else of the truth go unheeded by her skeptical family and friends. By the time anyone bothers to take Kate seriously, it may be too late to prevent a devastating tragedy from unfolding. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
A reasonably good thriller with a thickened atmosphere – you can slowly see the rising of the heaviness, the dark atmosphere and despair. Of course, I enjoyed the film the most from about the time the two desperate parents meet Esther to the moment this sweetheart gets slapped in the hospital. Other than that, I wasn't really entertained; that’s right, I didn't care for the final "fight". Anyway, I rate it positively because it has a certain atmosphere. Don't expect anything supernatural, though, just a proper freak-out.
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Quite impressive, but at times it’s a mysterious spectacle that is bit too far-fetched, and which, in my opinion, could have had an even worse ending. It is particularly far-fetched in terms of the actions of the parents (or father), the psychologist, the nurse from the orphanage... Essentially, almost everybody except the mother. But the acting of the two central female characters is very good, and the direction, including Ottman's reliable music, is also very good. And it's definitely a bonus that I almost didn't realize that it had a two-hour runtime.
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My goodness, that was quite nerve-wrecking! And it starts so easygoing (if we don’t count the first scene, that is), an idyll with smart little Esther and her likeable parents and siblings; I almost didn’t want to believe anything could go wrong. And it does! In the course of half an hour, Esther turns from a cute girl into the kind of bitch you want to murder with a pickaxe between the eyes, and the psycho-terror begins. Among other things, I liked how the film builds tension – there are several times when the director gives the impression that there’s a about to be jump-scare, a chilling scene or a twist, but he rarely delivers them, which does great service to keeping and increasing the attention of the viewer. For someone like Jaume Collet-Serra, who’s made the average House of Wax, this kind of mature psychological horror is a massive surprise and a great promise for the future.
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I certainly wouldn’t show the brutal beginning to expecting mothers, it was even a bit much for me, but otherwise a superb genre movie. In fact, I even considered giving it a five, but I didn’t find one of the twists at the end convincing (on the other hand it did mean that the always superb Karel Roden made an appearance). But in my opinion... the hammer hit the nail right on the head. :)
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Orphan is a very good film that certainly doesn't do its genre, the thriller, any disgrace. In the beginning, it's a kind of introduction to the characters that moves through a gradually escalating plot to a shocking conclusion. There really is something wrong with Esther, and I'm not at all surprised that the main antagonist looks a lot like the "good girl" from Case 39. It's just a shame that, due to certain circumstances, I was familiar with the twist before seeing the film and therefore followed all the clues that led to the surprising ending. In short, an above-average film that excels technically, in terms of acting (Vera Farmiga, Isabelle Fuhrman) and screenwriting.
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