'Orphan' review

Isabelle Fuhrman and Aryana Engineer (Credit: Warner Bros.)

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Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) have an amazing house, two solid kids (Jimmy Bennett and an adorable Aryana Engineer) and a relatively stable marriage. But after Kate suffers a miscarriage, they decide to adopt a child, which leads them to little orphan Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman)—an extraordinarily bright and seemingly well-behaved young girl. It’s not long before Esther starts showing another side of herself by killing a bird in front of her new siblings and casually cursing in front of her mother. Then people start getting hurt…

The buzz: The cryptic marketing campaign centers around the declaration “There's something wrong with Esther.” But will that make viewers curious enough to buy tickets, or just check out Twitter feeds from people eager to play spoiler? Since director Jaume Collet-Serra’s resume includes the junky Paris Hilton-featuring remake “House of Wax” there might be good reason to be cautious.

The verdict: Everyone loves a great twist ending. What’s often overlooked is that for every “big twist” movie that earns a “wow” from the audience—“The Usual Suspects,” “The Crying Game,” “The Sixth Sense”—many more just elicit a “what were they thinking?” That’s definitely the case with “Orphan,” a schlocky, overlong and unintentionally campy thriller that sells itself like “The Omen” but plays closer to a mid-‘90s psycho-fest. Think “The Good Son” meets “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and you’ll be on the right track. Professional standards prohibit me from even hinting at the lackluster reason behind Esther’s naughtiness, but paying audiences are likely to be less willing to protect the secret, especially since it’s hard not to feel cheated. It would help if the movie was actually scary, but there’s no sense of modulation or rising tension to Esther’s extreme behavior. The acting is richer than the story—Farmiga can’t help but give a genuine performance, though Sarsgaard is wasted as a man nearly too stupid to function—but this is a film designed to live or die on its twist. Good luck with that.

Did you know? One of the movie’s biggest names is behind the camera, Leonardo DiCaprio serves as a producer through his company, Appian Way.

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