Orphan (2009)

• Year: 2009
• Released: 24 Jul 2009
• Country: United States, Canada, Germany, France
• Adwords: 1 win & 7 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1148204/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Orphan
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/orphan
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, American Sign , Estonian
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
• Runtime: 123 min
• Writer: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Alex Mace
• Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
• Cast: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman
• Keywords: duringcreditsstinger, aftercreditsstinger, orphan, nun, deaf-mute,

	7.0/10
	42/100

Orphan Storyline

Kate and John Coleman are rebuilding their troubled marriage after the loss of their baby. The couple decide to adopt a child. When they meet 9-year-old Esther at the St. Marina Orphanage, they immediately fall in love with the well-educated orphan. Their son, Daniel is hostile to his new sister, but their deaf mute daughter, Max is enchanted with her – at first. Eventually, Kate begins to feel that Esther is manipulative and possibly even psychologically damaged. John refuses to listen to his wife’s misgivings. Kate calls Sister Abigail at the orphanage, and the nun informs her that Esther has a troubled and mysterious history. Kate delves further into Esther’s past and discovers she is not what she seems to be.

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Orphan Movie Reviews

Here Be Dragons

“Orphan” is sometimes regarded as a horror film, but in my view it is an example of that sub-genre of the thriller which I have come to regard as the “…… from Hell” movie, a type of film which enjoyed great popularity in the late eighties and early nineties following the success of “Fatal Attraction”. The basic premise of such films is that the life of the protagonist is turned upside-down by the arrival of a stranger who initially seems friendly but who quickly turns out to be dangerous, generally a murderer or psychopath. In most films this stranger is an adult, but this film brings us the adopted-child-from-Hell. The expression “from Hell”, incidentally, is not to be taken literally; “Orphan” might start out like an unacknowledged remake of “The Omen”, but the child’s evil is explained by a plot twist which has nothing to do with Satan or the supernatural.

Like a number of recent American films, this one was actually shot in Canada, presumably for financial reasons, but owing to the average American cinema-goer’s lack of interest in anything that happens north of the forty-ninth parallel the film-makers were forced to pretend, through the use of Connecticut licence plates, that the action is taking place in New England.

After their third child is stillborn, John and Kate Coleman, adopt Esther a 9-year-old Russian girl, from the local orphanage. Unfortunately for them, Esther turns out to be a badly behaved little girl, one whose bad behaviour goes far beyond the normal bounds of childish mischief. By the time the film is over, she will have killed several people and attempted to kill several others.

The film has been criticised for a lack of realism, and it certainly seems strange that John and Kate are permitted to adopt a child in the first place, given their obviously unsuitable background. Kate is recovering from alcoholism, and we learn that she was at fault in an incident when her own daughter, Maxine, nearly drowned in the garden pond. It also seems strange how slow John is to accept that there is anything wrong with the behaviour of his adopted daughter; Kate grows suspicious at a much earlier stage. I was interested by the suggestion of another reviewer that John’s reluctance could be explained by the fact that he is, at a subconscious level at least, sexually attracted to Esther, but idea this was, for obvious reasons, something the film-makers were unable to pursue. The idea that an otherwise respectable husband and father might harbour latent paedophile tendencies is something audiences would find extremely disturbing. The final twist (I won’t say what it is) has also struck many as implausible, but at least it is a twist which, if one can accept it, helps to make sense of what has gone before. Too many films these days, especially thrillers, end in a surprise twist which makes everything which has preceded it seem like nonsense.

The film does have its good points. The 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman is excellent as Esther, in some ways wise beyond her years yet also strange, emotionless and creepy. Incidentally, most of the best villains in “….. from Hell” movies are female, such as Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”, Rebecca de Mornay in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” or Jennifer Jason Leigh in “Single White Female”. There are films of this type with male villains, (“Pacific Heights”, “Bad Influence”, “Domestic Disturbance”) but they tend to be less memorable. Another good performance comes from another child-actress, eight-year-old Aryana Engineer as the deaf-mute Maxine; both girls, in fact, stand out more than any of the adults.

The film is also suitably atmospheric, being shot against a snowbound winter landscape, even if it does make it seem as though winter in Connecticut lasts all year. (At least it makes a change from all those films, “Housesitter” and The Cider House Rules” being recent examples, which suggest that the New England climate consists of twelve months of permanent autumn).

My own criticism of the film would be of some of the social attitudes revealed in it. The Cold War may be over, but there is still a tendency in America, and to some extent in Britain and Western Europe as well, to regard Eastern Europe with suspicion. Anywhere east of the former Iron Curtain is regarded as a strange, mysterious land whose inhabitants pose some vague threat to the West, whether by stealing our jobs, dragging us into their internecine tribal quarrels or by exporting their criminal elements to us. The film taps into these fears; it is significant that the menacing Esther claims to be Russian and is actually from Estonia, a part of the map which, as far as most Westerners are concerned, might still have “here be dragons” marked on it.

The film also taps into some of our anxieties about adoption, specifically middle-class fears that adopted children, especially if originally from working-class stock, are likely to be contaminated by “bad blood”, or inherited criminal propensities. Even if they do not actually suffer from any such genetic taint, there is always a fear that such children will never be able to bond with their adopted parents in the same way as they would with their biological parents.

Overall “Orphan” is a reasonably well-made film, a tense and gripping, if occasionally implausible, thriller, with a couple of good acting performances. The prejudices it reveals, however, are worrying. 6/10

Would-be chiller with a pint-sized Bela Lugosi

Another ‘evil kid’ horror film that’s content to repeat the same old plot elements and tricks from earlier, better films like THE OMEN. I admit I was looking forward to ORPHAN, as it had been a while since I’d sat down with a traditional horror film and I was looking forward to being scared. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

The film does have a couple of things going in its favour. Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (who made his name with the lamentable HOUSE OF WAX remake) crafts a good-looking film with a stylishness it doesn’t really deserve. Isabelle Fuhrman, as the sinister girl at the heart of the story, is excellent in the role and would be effective if given more taxing characters (Anne Frank, for instance).

Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends. The characters of the parents are particularly irritating, with Peter Sarsgaard playing an oblivious bore and Vera Farmiga a thoroughly annoying mother. Farmiga, so good in a supporting role in THE DEPARTED, also gives a bad performance that displays none of the talent she showed in the Scorsese film. Only old hand CCH Pounder is any good, and she’s virtually wasted.

The rest of the movie plays out by rote, with the expected deaths, manipulation and betrayal, before the script throws in a ludicrous twist ending which is so laughable as to be unbelievable. It’s a shame, because on occasion ORPHAN comes close to being a decent film, but in the end it just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Good creepy girl

Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard) are trying to adopt. She’s a recovering alcoholic and they’re trying to salvage their family after the death of their baby Jessica. They adopt Russian girl Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) at the St. Marina Orphanage. At first, the son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) didn’t get along while the deaf daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) loves her. Then Esther’s manipulations and threats causes concerns from Kate. John dismisses all of it. The psychologist Dr. Browning (Margo Martindale) keeps questioning her. Then Kate finds out troubling information about Esther.

This starts very slowly. The psycho family dysfunction is well done although John’s denial is very annoying. It is extremely frustrating and I wish the movie dials it down a bit. I do love the twist. It fits the movie very well, and it’s done smoothly. Isabelle Fuhrman does the role beautifully, and Vera Farmiga is great as the frazzled mother.