Evil Adoption Roller Coaster Ride, well worth the ticket!

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2010)

Caught this on DVD, got it from Blockbuster's discount rack...which is never a good sign. That said, I have to tell you...this was a fun, fun ride! It's a horror film that knows just the right doses of information and set up, it's a simple story that takes on some complicated issues and does such a fantastic job of it all.
The little actress who plays Esther, the orphan of the title, is so amazing she puts all the other actors in the cast to shame. How she will ever move on to another role is almost impossible to imagine, but with as much talent as she has on display here I'd be willing to wager she'll do it, and that she has an Oscar in her future acting endeavors.
I'm sure it's not easy to be an orphan looking for adoptive parents, and this film will not make it any easier! When a young couple decided to take in a little girl they get far more than they bargained for and soon, people start turning up dead and those who aren't dead...are in constant jeopardy! It's an adoption roller coaster ride with a twist ending I will not mention here as it was one of my favorite bits in the film...makes the girl allllll the creepier.
Thumbs up all around, except Peter Sarsgaard, who I must admit I've never been a fan of. He seems to be working so hard all the time, and I'm of the opinion the acting should be unnoticed...and if it is, it should at least look easy. Sarsgaard turns acting into a backbreaking chore...and over the course of a 90 minute film the audience starts to take on some of that work. He's more or less put to shame by Isabelle Furhman's Esther.
I hate to heap too much praise on the film, not because it doesn't deserve it...but so as not to raise the bar too much for those of you who haven't seen it yet. I suspect part of what I loved so much about it was I wasn't expecting much and then discovered a little gem.