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There's something wrong with ORPHAN. Actually, there are several things wrong with ORPHAN, none of which have anything to do with Vera Farmiga, who's too good of an actress to be stuck in a mediocre project like this. Unfortunately, though, this film essentially consists of nothing but Farmiga running around desperately trying to be believed by people who trust a weird kid's incredulous stories more than hers.
One of the biggest problems across the board in ORPHAN is in terms of editing. The transitions from one scene to another (and very often within scenes as well) are sometimes awkward, sometimes senseless and very often choppy. This prevents the film from having a nice narrative fluidity, but the problem gets even worse during the climax, which lacks all the suspenseful excitement that it might've had if the reels were handled with more finesse.
There's some occasional so-bad-it's-good fun to be had with ORPHAN. It's because of that that I would feel better if the film didn't make the completely unnecessary mistake of going over the 2-hour mark. This story could've easily been told in 90 minutes (as it often happens with horror films) without losing any important elements; in fact, a shorter running time may have made it easier to digest this as disposable entertainment.
Before the film starts, there's a disclaimer that warns people about the fact that ORPHAN is just a movie and that couples looking to adopt shouldn't let it dissuade them from doing so. I know this will make me sound pretty rude, but if a couple that wants to adopt actually starts having doubts about doing so after watching this movie, then I'm not so sure they'd be the best parents in the world, because it's beyond me how anyone could swallow the spree of implausibilities and exaggerations that are thrown at us during this film. Sure, the final twist assuages the disbelief towards the title character's overly precocious personality, but Esther's adult-like behavior is far from being the only outlandish element of this film. Also, I "love" how obvious it is that the final twist is revealed right after a rather perverse scene in which Esther behaves WAY too much like an adult. At that point, if the twist weren't revealed, outrage from the moral right may have been inevitable.
ORPHAN would've been wise to do a better job with its final chase sequences and with the way it wraps everything up. What the film chooses to do with the fates of its two male characters makes little sense: we don't find out what ultimately happens to one of them, and the fate of the other one is surprising but in a way that keeps the story from being able to have closure. Even worse, the end credits are tainted (literally) with some corny and poorly-shot footage that is meant to "sum up" everything we supposedly needed to know about our title character.
Fortunately, the end of this year will see both Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard starring in films that look to be much better than this sporadically engaging but ultimately unsatisfying "thriller" of sorts. Honestly, if you're thinking of adopting a kid, all this movie suggests is that it's PROBABLY a good idea for you to see the child naked at some point after adopting him/her, so that you can make sure that he/she is, um... normal. Surely that's something that adopting couples could figure out without having to subject themselves to watching ORPHAN.
4/10
