The Coleman family consists of husband John (Peter Sarsgaard), wife Kate (Vera Farmiga), son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) and deaf-mute daughter Max (Aryana Engineer). The sudden and tragic death of their third child has a terrible affect on the entire family, but no one more so than Kate, who still gets very emotional about the loss.
They have a greenhouse with a memorial of the stillborn featuring a bouquet of white roses and a written phrase to remember the deceased by.
The couple decides on adopting from the local orphanage and ultimately chooses a nine-year-old Russian girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a rare feat considering how uncommon it is to adopt foreign children. Esther appears to be shy, sweet, mature and quite artistic for her young age, which impresses John in particular.
Things start off smoothly, but it's no surprise when we discover that evil lies beneath the innocent surface.
If Esther, at nine years old, has one goal in life, it seems to be to bring destruction to everything she comes in contact with. Still, she has the ability to make others believe that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time - and does so with increasing frequency. She can hold that sweet and innocent look with superb efficiency.
She gets bullied at school about the clothes she’s wearing and the special book she carries along. When pressed by another girl, Ester lies and says it’s a bible, but it’s much more than that.
Kate becomes suspicious when Esther injures another girl at a nearby park. Esther claims it was an accident, but Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder), the head of the orphanage, warns her and John that bad things always seem to happen when Esther is around.
Instead of Bringing the Coleman’s Together, Esther Causes Great Divide Between Parents
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Orphan is the relationship between the two parents that deteriorates gradually after Esther’s arrival.
Bringing a new child into their lives was supposed to strengthen their relationship and the family. Instead, it’s tearing them apart. John hints at past infidelity, while Kate struggles with a drinking problem that she’s actually in control of, although her husband doesn't think so.
Neither gives the other the benefit of the doubt.
Kate soon believes Esther is conspiring against her, while her husband doesn’t think she’s trying hard enough to work out their differences and won’t hear any of it, going as far as threatening to take the kids and leave.
This leads Kate to secretly rummage through Esther’s room looking for clues about who this child truly is. When she finds the bible hidden in her dresser, it helps unlock a chilling fact later on.
Esther, of course, isn’t the dream child she makes herself out to be, manipulating John into thinking his wife doesn’t hold her in the same regard as her biological children, Daniel and Max. This only increases the tension between the couple.
Following one challenging scene, John suggests to Esther that she do something nice for Mommy and Esther acknowledges that this is a good idea. She decides to give Kate the very same white bunch of roses from the greenhouse, which sends the mother into a manic state, leading John to threaten taking the kids.
Although she never mutters a single word and communicates through sign language, nearly every scene Max is in seems to reveal something, which maybe isn’t surprising considering how well she and Esther get along and that they’re frequently together.
Equipped with an Unsatisfying Conclusion, Orphan Suffers Same Faults that Plague Similar Films
For every crafty and intelligent thriller or horror film, there is bound to be an abundance of dreadful ones that lack originality, insight and direction, among many other things.
The genre is littered with clichés, and Orphan turns out to be no exception. While the film begins on a strong note, retaining your attention through some intriguing moments, the second half just drags along with an ending that’s generic, predictable and plain boring even though it comes at a frantic pace.
All three children give excellent performances, and both Farmiga and Sarsgaard have proven themselves to be quality actors, though both have appeared in some less-than-stellar films.
Unfortunately, Orphan is another entry on that list.
Rating: 6/10
- Orphan
- 2009 horror-thriller
- Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
- Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman
- Running time: 123 minutes
Thomas Cranston - Thomas Cranston is a graduate of the Journalism (Print) program at Durham College (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada). He is passionate about a wide ...
