A few thrills short of a gripping scarefest
The very bad seed in Orphan, a Dark Castle offering awash in red stuff and implausibility, is a nine-year-old girl with chronic homicidal urges and a Russian accent. A pretty interesting movie about the crack-up of an American family lies right under the filmmakers' noses, but in their rush to deliver shock and gore they miss every opportunity to make a smart movie.
A young orphan with nothing more than chaos and murder on her mind couldn't pick a better family to adopt her than the Colemans. Kate (the talented Vera Farmiga) is a reformed drunk no one trusts and is responsible for the deafness of her young daughter (Aryana Engineer).
Husband John (Peter Sarsgaard) has a roving eye where women are concerned and blindness to the point of folly when it comes to recognising a demon in their midst. The family shrink couldn't diagnose an Oedipus complex in Oedipus. The son (Jimmy Bennett) shares his mother's growing unease over his new sister but is too much of a weasel to do much but sulk.
The predictable incidents that ensue might have been intriguing had writer David Leslie Johnson played better with notions of guilt and blame, which are exploited to keep the husband in the dark.
"I guess I'm different," says Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) when she meets her adoptive family. Esther apparently was born in Russia, lost her first American family to a fire, her records can't be found and bad things happen whenever she is around. But none of this is different for a family with an unexamined desperation for adoption following the stillbirth of their third child.
For Farmiga, this is a meaty role, but it's odd to see her essentially repeat the story line of her 2007 film Joshua, in which a nine-year-old son drove her to hysteria. For Sarsgaard, you can only hope this film raises his quote because there is no other reason to tackle such an unforgivingly dull and obtuse character.
Furhman plays pure evil with such supreme calmness that only her eyes shine with madness. Indeed, all of the child actors are superb, especially the expressive Engineer.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra displays a basic mistrust in the material by filling scenes with abrupt noises and sharp music cues even before Esther arrives. The production has enough of a professional sheen to hold audience attention until the showdown between Esther and the family.
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