Orphan
- Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
- Written by David Leslie Johnson
- Starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett and Aryana Engineer
- Classification: 14A
Creepy-kid flicks don't come much slicker than Orphan , in which a mysterious adopted Russian girl gradually wreaks havoc on an upscale family, with mostly predictable results.
In your typical “bad seed” movie, the cause of the little devil's deceptive, cruel and inevitably murderous trajectory is either supernatural or psychological. Orphan concentrates on the latter and hints at the former but never exploits the dramatic possibilities, despite the efforts of its excellent cast and gorgeous production values (the film was shot in wintry Quebec and Ontario, with Toronto's High Park providing the setting for one of the more suspenseful and nasty scenes).
Vera Farmiga – who delivered a memorable performance in the much darker and far more believable “bad seed” drama Joshua (2007) – plays Kate, a married pianist and mother of two. But, as the film's truly nightmarish opening scene reveals, Kate is haunted by the loss of a stillborn daughter. And her alcoholism, now under control, is blamed for an accident that left her youngest daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) deaf.
Kate and husband John (Peter Sarsgaard), who is some kind of graphic artist, have decided to adopt a girl to give the love they felt for their stillborn child “to someone who really needs it.” At an orphanage full of laughing kids, John finds Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a nine-year-old singing an old tune and painting alone in an upstairs classroom. Both he and Kate are smitten – a surprised look from Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder) that goes by in a flash is a nice, chilling touch.
Esther wears old-fashioned clothing, with ribbons around her neck and wrists at all times. She also tends to walk in on her new parents every time things get sexy. Kate finds an old leather-bound Bible hidden at the back of Esther's drawer but doesn't fully explore the contents.
Son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) calls Esther a freak and has his tree house locked until he apologizes. This comes in handy when Sister Abigail shows up a few weeks later to reveal, among other concerns, that the house fire that killed Esther's foster family wasn't an accident. Esther gets poor little Max to lip-read their meeting, then drags her along to help drive the nun's car off the road. She hammers the woman to death, hiding the evidence in the tree house.
Kate starts researching psychological disorders and, eventually, the girl's background. This only serves to inspire Esther, who terrifies her adoptive siblings into keeping their mouths shut … or else.
Once Kate and the audience discover the true reason behind Esther's path of destruction (a clever, if somewhat implausible, twist), Orphan descends into a formulaic bloodbath that barely registers a pulse.
Special to The Globe and Mail
