Review: Orphan

Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard have two kids (Jimmy Bennett and deaf Aryana Engineer) but a tragic stillborn birth deprives the couple of a third, and this seems to have driven Farmiga to alcoholism while Sarsgaard (fond of a drink himself) has admitted to failings of his own of the wandering eye kind. Farmiga’s alcoholism and parental neglect saw a near fatal injury to one of the kids, resulting in Farmiga seeking counselling. Still not healed from the tragedy of a child that was not meant to be, the couple decide to adopt, settling on 9 year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a Russian immigrant with an old-fashioned dress sense, an aptitude for the piano, and a startlingly mature demeanour. But Esther isn’t your average little girl, something that wimpy but hostile Bennett immediately picks up on, and soon Farmiga is alarmed too. Meanwhile, alarmingly passive Sarsgaard and gullible Engineer are sucked in to Esther’s manipulations, with Sarsgaard being your typical Doubting Thomas (with good reason?). Just what is up with this slightly (and strangely) aloof little girl? CCH Pounder plays a nun at the orphanage who introduces the couple to Esther.

 

This 2009 Jaume Collet-Serra (the mediocre remake of “House of Wax”, the enjoyable “Non-Stop”) flick has its merits but was somewhat of a disappointment, and not just because I was expecting an A-grade “Omen”-style horror film instead of the drastically uneven B-grade drama-thriller I got (think “The Good Son” or “Mikey”, both slightly better than this). It does, however, have one of the most unexpected, and brilliant twists I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I mean, we’re talking “The Crying Game” meets “Let the Right One In” messed-up, totally left-field territory here. Whether you like the twist or not (and many intensely dislike it), it’s one of only two elements in the film you’re likely to be talking about afterwards.

 

The other element worth praising would be the remarkable performances of the unfortunately named Aryana Engineer (Is her brother named Biochemical? Biomedical?) and especially the unforgettable Fuhrman. This young actress (Who was apparently around 11 at the time) is in a class of her own, expertly playing a complex character of a nature that someone of Fuhrman’s age should not be able to actually understand well-enough to actually portray the character so effectively. I’m not being condescending towards child actors, this is some heavy shit this girl’s got to convey (for someone of any age, actually), and she might just be the best child actor I’ve come across since Corey Feldman (I’m talking about the Feldman of “Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter”, “Stand by Me” and “The Goonies”, not the Feldman of the ‘Two Coreys’ flicks, let alone “The Two Coreys” ‘improvised’ reality show). It actually reminds me of the work by Bruce Ritchey as an intellectually disabled kid in “A Child is Waiting”, back in 1963, where I was left wondering how such a young kid could get to the place he needed to in order to deliver such a performance that would’ve required a decent understanding of intellectual disabilities. It seems impossible, miraculous even. Fuhrman’s basically playing a sociopath (if not pure evil. Like Harvey Stephens in “The Omen”, she’s able to suggest someone on a totally different plane of existence to the rest of us), someone adept at hiding their true nature and putting up an innocent front only when they need to for their own gain. I suppose all kids do this, but not on the level of this character, as a sociopath also lacks true empathy, something a child actor must find awfully hard to understand let alone convey. Make no mistake, this is the kind of remarkable performance that special Oscars ought to be given out for. The dynamic between the three child actors (including Bennett as the antagonistic but wimpy brother, who in my opinion is almost as objectionable as the title character!) is also really fascinating, you’ve got gullible Engineer, hostile Bennett, and manipulative and evil Fuhrman, all three doing and saying things you wouldn’t expect from kids their age, especially in the movies.

 

The dynamic between Fuhrman and Engineer in particular is bold, creepy and oh-so wrong in all the right ways. There’s one scene involving two of the kids and a gun that made my jaw hit the ground. A death scene involving one of the supporting characters is also choice, and a scene where Fuhrman confronts Bennett at night is about seven different kinds of messed-up. The film actually starts with a truly bravura scene right off the bat, the ickiest and most disturbing opening I’ve seen in a horror film in years. It’s also signal #1 of many that this film is not for couples wanting children in the near future (The adoption process sure gets a royal screwing over during the course of the film). And there’s one scene involving a child’s drawings that’s gonna have parents across the globe shining a UV light on their kids pictures. Meanwhile, the film’s most notorious and divisive scene involves Fuhrman and Sarsgaard and I simply can’t describe it, words can’t do it justice. Suffice to say it’s a brilliant button-pushing moment that about 50% of people are likely going to object to passionately, and probably with some justification, no matter my own praises of said scene. So that’s several great scenes, but unfortunately they still do not add up to a great film. This is the same film that gives us not one but two medicine cabinet mirror scare scenes (you know the kind), the bane of my very existence. And this best typifies this film. It does some things right, but then goes and screws about three other things up. For instance, as great as the twist is, it takes forever to get going (in a film that lacks energy and is too low-key), the parents are unlikeable, and the cinematography by Jeff Cutter is pretty ugly (It’s way too murky and dark in the night-time scenes, and rather bleak during the day scenes, presumably on purpose). I loved that the mother’s the suspicious one, given her past you’d expect her to be so needy she’d fall for Fuhrman’s Transylvanian Anne Frank act immediately, but passive ‘ol Dad’s the sucker here. It’s also nice, in a “Don’t Look Now” kinda way to have some genuinely passionate and virile screen parents (Fuhrman busts them having oral sex), especially played by idiosyncratic actors, but I didn’t much like the characters themselves. I have sympathy for anyone who suffers the grief of losing a child, but I have little to no sympathy for parents who want to adopt a child simply to fill a void. I mean, they already have two other kids, why not show them some love you selfish bastards?! And at one point, Farmiga chastises her deaf child for making too much noise. What an insensitive bitch! Meanwhile, on a lesser note concerning the oral sex scene, I always find odd that people kiss each other after having oral sex. Does Sarsgaard realise he’s tasting his own...erm...‘member’? So any way, all this makes it pretty hard to want to get to the twist, let alone appreciate the good work by the child actors when so many other things are working against it. It remains watchable for those who can stomach the goings on, but there are elements here that suggest something better could’ve been made, especially if a stronger genre director were involved.

 

Maybe if you go into it not expecting a horror film, you won’t be as disappointed overall as I was. But man, that twist is a knockout! All praises to Isabelle Fuhrman! Warts and all, it probably needs to be seen at least once.

 

Rating: C+