Orphan is the chilling tale of evil in the guise of an innocent child. This film, in the tradition of The Bad Seed and The Good Son, is a new and unsettling take on a familiar story.
Orphan: The Storyline
Kate Coleman and her husband John decide to adopt to compensate for the loss of their third child, who was stillborn. They choose Esther, a nine-year-old Russian girl from a nearby orphanage, and take her home to meet their deaf-mute daughter Max and their son, Daniel.
Esther has some strange habits of wearing old-fashioned clothing and ribbons around her neck and arms, which she refuses to remove. Daniel is upset because her oddness makes him a target for ridicule at school. Things begin to go wrong when a schoolmate who has tormented Esther has a bad accident.
Other accidents and suspicious happenings occur whenever Esther is around. Kate tries to convince John that something is amiss, but John refuses to listen. He believes his wife, an ex-alcoholic, has it in for Esther. Esther keeps causing trouble and making it appear Kate is treating her abusively. in the meantime she has frightened the two kids into silence.
Things come to a crisis when Daniel is badly injured in what Kate realizes is no accident. She begins to trace down Esther's past and discovers a terrible secret. The movie ends with a twist that is entirely unexpected.
Isabelle Furhman as Esther
"If America hates me, I've done my job," states Isabelle Furhman. The young actress who portrayed the deeply disturbed Esther's performance was postively acclaimed. Critic Roger Ebert states Isabelle "is not going to be convincing as a nice child for a long, long time."
Isabelle, who lives in the United States but has a Soviet-born mother, does a great acting job as the creepy Esther. Her other film credits include Grasshopper and Hound Dog.
Orphan Production Information and Box Office Reception
The film, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, was produced by Dark Castle Entertainment. It received mixed reviews, with the audience liking it more than the critics. Orphan ranked #4 at the box office on its opening weekend, and was rated 43% by the Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite a few flaws and minor plot holes, most reviewers concluded that Orphan is good thriller, a cut above what might be expected by its premise. The film's content did receive some criticism by the adoption community because of its portrayal of a murderous adopted child from Eastern Europe.
Other Movies Similar to The Orphan
The Orphan is reminiscent of several other movies about evil children. Many viewers found it strikingly similar to The Good Son, in which Macaulay Culkin starred as an angelic-seeming boy who harbored deep-rooted feelings of jealousy toward his cousin. It was also similar to the well-known movie, The Bad Seed, about a child psychopath who killed anyone who stood in the way of her wants and needs.
The following movies are similar in theme to The Orphan.
- The Bad Seed
- The Good Son
- The Omen
- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
- The Stepfather
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