Orphan

Orphan (2009)

55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 119 reviews)

Runtime: 123 minutes

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra

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

From: Warner Brothers/Dark Castle Entertainment

I’ll start off this blog by talking about a movie I saw in the theatre once when I was up in Illinois on vacation and then I just recently saw it again. Yep, this will be a positive review.

When I first heard about the movie via it’s trailers and ads I wasn’t too interested in it. But, I heard praise for the film from various online websites I have at least some trust in, so that piqued my interest. Then, I heard that there was a rather shocking twist as to the secret of what is wrong with the title character. I didn’t highlight any of the spoilers but knew that it was a twist no one would expect.

I had free time one afternoon on my Illinois trip so I went online (at an Apple Store, of all things) and found a local theatre that was showing it at the right time for me. I went to it and it (a Marcus Theater) was pretty nice.

As for the movie, I really enjoyed it. It’s about a couple (Farmiga, Sarsgaard) with two children who adopt a girl (Fuhrman) they find in an orphanage, but soon things start to happen… as for the flick it’s not a gore-fest horror movie by any means (although what little you get to see there is well-done) but rather a suspenseful engrossing flick where the plot is that the title character is playing a Machiavellian plot against Farmiga, because… but I won’t give it away. The plot twist is indeed something that no one could have ever guessed beforehand. It’s one of a few things/images in the movie that alone are pretty incredible and it’s something that you can’t ever forget. In the movie, though, it manages to work and it’s not SO ridiculous that you laugh at the movie like you do I Know Who Killed Me, a movie that this has been compared to by a few people, and even I was reminded of it. Now, I’ll probably see that flick again on DVD eventually (I saw it in a theatre in Tampa… and I was the only one in there; what an experience that was) and talk about it here but that was just wrong from beginning to end and its plot twist is SO much higher on the implausibility scale; it’s really not fair to compare the two movies except to say that Orphan is a million times better than I Know Who Killed Me, in terms of stuff like acting, cinematography, the plot, the tone, etc. With Orphan, I enjoyed the way it was filmed and how it looked, with a snowy Connecticut as the backdrop.

What made it so good, though, were the performances. Farmiga did a great job as a mom/wife whose husband starts not to believe her. But, the young daughter in the family, Max (Engineer) who is hearing-impaired, did a great job in the role, especially considering that this was her first-ever movie and she is hearing-impaired in real life. She was definitely the most adorable part of the film. The thing that made this so fun, though, was Fuhrman as the title character. She hasn’t done that much work herself and she did an incredible job here with what ended up being quite the role. Both of those young ladies and the director (he did the House of Wax remake, another film I haven't seen but from all appearances that's not necessarily something I really need to see) may end up having a promising future so this would be a chance to see them before they have any possible prosperity.

Overall, while this is a movie that goes pretty far (especially for a wide release like this) it is something that I highly recommend, especially for horror fans who are fed up with most of the movies in the genre that have been released in theatres in the past several years. You’ll end up having a good time with this, a film that straddles the lines of campiness and seriousness but it doesn’t go over the line and that’s why I dug it so much. I say that you should see it in the theatre if you can; after this upcoming week it’ll probably be gone from most theatres and while I’m sure it’ll eventually hit the dollar theatres in like a month or two, seeing it in front of a decent crowd may be the way to go; the shared experience can be fun.

I'll post another movie I saw recently in a moment.