Orphan (2009)
Hold Your Breath!!
Written by: David Johnson and Alex Mace
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Isabell Fuhrman, Peter Sarsgaard, Vera Farmiga
A mother (Vera Farmiga) in a dying labor pain looks up when doctors say her child has died. Doctors and the mother look at the blood-soaked baby in shock when it starts crying. Above all that, the husband shows up with a camcorder. Now that is one bone-chilling creation from a twisted writer, or in this case a pair of writers (David Johnson and Alex Mace). Not sure if that was a necessary introduction for this cleverly written violent opera (Orphan) but honestly it is not the time to judge yet. Not for the sake of saving writers and director’s (Jaume Collet-Serra) plea for freedom of expression but for the explanation in the end.
It is tough to find a decent thriller. If you agree the last three best thrillers were James Wan’s Saw (2004) and Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000). Orphan, a tale of a couple who adopt a girl from an orphanage only to get thrown into a world of mis-deeds, mis-fortunes and mis-takes, could be added as the fourth cleverly twisted thriller of the past two decades. For that not only the writer and director but the shining star of this film Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) should be appreciated with a round of applause. It is not just the idea that is the primary force behind the success but the screenplay fits well to the dark ambience. The argument of the violence justification perhaps will render itself un-necessary. The writing is hypnotic and shocking. The director doesn not fail to justice the screenplay. The false impression of ghostly possession of the protagonist leading to a conclusion is very ‘Hitchcockian’. In fact the director makes a homage to the famous stop-light-confrontation of the leading lady by her boss in Psycho (1960), if stretched further to Butch-Marcellus confrontation in Pulp Fiction (1994). Another memorable scene is when camera sits next to sleeping Max (Aryana Engineer) in the dark room and the lightning flash from the window shows her adopted sister Esther standing next to her bed. Director accomplishes a horrifying tone to this thriller throughout. Watch for the modification of the studio logos in the beginning of the film.
Isabelle Fuhrman hovers over the film with a winning smile. This 12 yr old actor has a great potential and will help her in her upcoming career. Alongside Aryana Engineer and Jimmy Bennett as siblings have shined as well. Especially Aryana. Wonder how director executed the chilling scenes without affecting all the child stars. Maybe Mr. Kubrick attended the filming in spirit and gave suggestions from The Shining (1980). Finally the parents, play the roles of a believer and a non-believer in each other’s theories. Posing as opposing thought invokers for the audience. This is also the writers’ achievement.
In a nutshell, if you haven’t been scared intelligently then Orphan is waiting for you. Just sit back and bite your nails because you may not find time to chew on the popcorn.
My rating: 8/10.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thank God you brought this movie in PFC. I am not sure whther this got released in India. But as an undying fan of horror genre this one comes after a myriad of ‘8 films to die for’, ‘masters of horror’, rob zombie and friday the 13th shits where the storyline gives way to abundance of Heinz tomato ketchup.
After watching this one I texted each of my friend who were still looking for potter 6 or Time Traveller’s concubine that this one— coming from formulaic hollywood and turning on its head should not be missed.
And the 12 year old just made me scream “Move over Dacota Fanning. There is a new kid in the block. And she is here to stay”.
I went to see this movie having the idea that it will again be that lucifer’s child ( a la Damien) formula…but the movie just blew my mind [ Last horror movie to do that was Fruit Chan's Dumpling...but that was way back in 2006]. consider it’s the second effort from a guy who directed paris hilton in that horrible remake of house of wax!
Couple of my favorite scene :
Esther’s mother trying to explain to her that what she and her father was doing in kitchen in a way that any parents will try her child to understand sex. Esther looked back from Piano with a cold stare and answered —”I know—-they F***”
2nd one :
during climax when the father reaches Esther’s room and realize what lies beneath her pictures, pictures which have invisible flurocent colors and in the dim light they show real meaning of all the paintings!!!
probably this movie will go unnoticed and during fall Hollywood bandwagon will again produce rotten products such as H2 etc but for pepole who loves that old intelligent twist in the tale orphan is a must watch.
Nice input Labor-day,
I agree with Orphan making to the list of one of the top horror/thriller lists and also agree about
“probably this movie will go unnoticed and during fall Hollywood bandwagon will again produce rotten products ”
Agree all the way.
Nice review buddy.Seems absolutely interesting. Any idea where i can get a copy of this movie in mumbai??? Oh n btw it was nice to see a pic of eric cartman as ur user photo.
hold your breath? you must be kidding!
“The writing is hypnotic and shocking.” the writing is so hypnotic that it borders on being a soporific. and it’s so shocking that you are stupefied to numbness thinking how this script got optioned.
the piano scene, the meat scene, the seduction scene, and finally, that so called brilliant twist — wasn’t all that too convenient an excuse to have a child play that esther woman and do the *you know what*?
not to mention that sarsgaard’s coleman was a natural. a natural fucking idiot.
save your money – go watch *the good son* or *the bad seed*. even better, watch *the orphanage* or *let the other one in* again.