Nothing about Spanish director Jaume Collet-Sera's previous foray into horror -- the Paris Hilton-infested slasher film House of Wax -- suggests he could have pulled off a movie like Orphan.
Despite what you might assume from the trailers, this umpteen hundredth movie in the "evil child" genre manages to kill two hours with only a couple of killings, a lot of head games and suspense, a deftly-delivered child-actor performance and one Sixth-Sense-level surprise.
The surprise is pretty demented (if a little belief-beggaring), and that's all we'll say about that. But suffice to say Orphan is a rare thriller that is better than its marketing suggests, a film that seems utterly Bad Seed-familiar on the surface, but throws some pretty good curveballs to carve its own identity.
Well before we meet Esther -- the odd, preternaturally articulate, Russian-accented Wednesday Addams clone, played by Isabelle Fuhrman, who is at the centre of this story -- psychological carnage is strewn all over the screen.
We experience, in a dream, the third-trimester miscarriage of a clearly troubled woman named Kate (Vera Farmiga).
We discover relations between Kate and her husband John (Peter Sarsgaard) are strained because of Kate's past drinking problem that once led to the neglectful near-drowning of their hearing-impaired daughter Max (Aryana Engineer).
There's also a surly pubescent son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) to spice up the dysfunctional stew.
Why a family in this state would consider adopting a puppy, let alone a child, is a little puzzling.
Nonetheless, it sets the table terrifically for the introduction of an amoral nine-year-old with the cool sophistication to read people inside and out.
At the orphanage, run by the comforting Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder), John is distracted from the herd of playfully screaming kids by a lone, friendly little girl, busily drawing pictures with the aplomb of an adult art student. Presented with a well-mannered obvious prodigy, Kate has little choice but to go along (despite Sister Abigail's cryptic observation that Esther is "different").
Transplanted into the real world of cruel kids, Esther insists on wearing what are dubbed "Bo Peep" clothes by her sneering peers.
Unfortunately for them.
In other hands, a director might be tempted to court sympathy for Esther by having her turn psycho-vigilante for a while on bullies who deserve it. But the nasty-kid/evil-kid encounter is short, unsettling, and serves only to drop clues as to Esther's larger agenda.
She quickly teaches herself sign language, the better to co-opt an innocent Max as her sociopathic enabler. She "night walks," spending hours staring at the sleeping Daniel with dark intent. And with Kate, she performs what amounts to anti-therapy, unravelling her with seemingly innocent acts and pointed questions.
And John? Well, let's say she works hard at keeping him clueless.
It's a long set-up for a manic last act (complete with the old "unkillable bogeyman" chestnut).
Still, the stomach-knotting is kept taut throughout, and the acting is first-rate -- none more than Fuhrman, who seems to have the self-awareness and skill to be one of the best child actors around.
That is, if she doesn't go the rest of her career being typecast as a demon seed based on this performance.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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