Strong thriller made highly watchable by Farmiga and especially young Fuhrman.

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2010)

After losing her baby at child birth, Kate (Vera Farmiga) and her husband Jon (Peter Sarsgaard) decides to adopt an nine year old little girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Kate and Jon have two kids of their own, the oldest is Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) and Max (Aryana Engineer). At first, Esther seems to be an normal happy little girl. But Esther isn't what she seems to be. She is highly intelligent, manipulative person, who looks wise beyond her eyes. Very little slowly, the family discovers that Esther is hiding an truly dark nasty secret from them.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Goal 2:Living the Dream, House of Wax "2005") made an entertaining, scary, sometimes darkly humorous thriller in the vain of "The Bad Seed" and "The Good Son". Strong performances by Farmiga and especially young Fuhrman makes this sometimes flawed thriller worth watching.
DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD includes deleted scenes and alternate ending. The Blu-ray includes an featurette and an digital copy. If you haven't seen this thriller, don't miss one of the most underrated movies of 2009. Good screenplay by David Leslie Johnson (The Girl with the Red Riding Hood). From a story by Alex Mace. (****/*****).