Film reviews
Men In Black 3
It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.
Bel Ami
The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.
The Dictator
A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.
The Woman In Black
Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.
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Orphan (Film)
Rating: MA
Running Time: 123
Country: Canada
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Jimmy Bennett, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Peter Sarsgaard
Distributor: Roadshow
Release Date: August 13, 2009
Film Worth: $11.50
FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worthSaved from B-grade status by an excellent cast, this chilling horror will unnerve the strongest of cinema patrons.
Orphan falls somewhere between a Dario Argento Giallo (say, Deep Red or Tenebrae) and a Fatal Attraction-style chiller. The story is simple, but nicely nuanced in its execution: Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) lose their unborn child. This hits the couple, and their two existing children, hard. Kate is plagued by nightmares, and starts drinking too much. John becomes the typical distant male, and the marriage (and family) suffer. The couple decides to adopt a child, and find themselves drawn to the articulate, strangely mature nine-year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). She's from Russia, but speaks excellent English. She's also...well, that would be telling.
Needless to say, the tagline "There's Something Wrong With Esther" falls into "major understatement" territory. Orphan is, at times, quite a shocking thriller. Sure, it's not The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but there's pretty rough stuff here. However, due to Farmiga's increasingly fraught performance - and her character's frustration at the fact that no one believes her, to the point of incredulity (John comes off as a bit thick, it has to be said) - and an astonishing feat of acting by young Isabelle Fuhrman, the film mostly avoids tired thriller clichés, or at the very least delivers them with aplomb.
There has been controversy surrounding the flick, with adoption agencies objecting to some of the dialogue (taken totally out of context in the trailer), but this isn't an "all adopted kids are evil" film. This is a B-grade thriller lifted to mainstream film status by uniformly good performances from even the minor players (CCH Pounder is always welcome), creepy directing, and a twist that may surprise even the most jaded genre buff.
Orphan is an exciting, mesmerising affair, and if you're willing to forgive a few moments of narrative implausibility, you'll have a good, albeit somewhat harrowing, time.
