A very well done under the radar genre flick.

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2009)

I have some respect for Director Jaume Collet-Serra. He directed HOUSE OF WAX which turned into a Warner Bros attempt to cash in on Paris Hilton's 15 seconds. The movie could have easily been a train wreck of an epic magnitude, but instead turned out to be a respectable genre piece and I think should be considered pretty well when taken as such.
THE ORPHAN Good movie. It is what I thought it would be, but that is mostly because of the positive buzz I've been hearing form from genre fans. (The filmmakers and studio must be psyched about this. Usually word of mouth kills horror movies.) The cast was excellent. One is likely to hear much ado about aged 12 Isabelle Fuhrman. Fuhrman was dead on creepy and had an honest but subtly consistent Russian accent that would put many Hollywood mainstays to shame. It appears that she is going to be in a remake of CHILDREN OF THE CORN, so we could be witnessing the birth of a new scream queen - or scream creep. It's a shame to type cast so early, but she was that good.
This movie was very much Vera Farmiga's (The Wife) as well. She's a veteran actor that's seen some screen time in THE DEPARTED and a bunch of smaller movies and TV roles. I have to admit that I don't remember her from THE DEPARTED, but she did enough in ORPHAN to warrant a revisiting of some of her work. At aged 36, Farmiga is real world attractive and brings a convincing knack for nuanced method acting to the film. Her emotionally unstable and self doubting character is a sale right from the start and that wonderful vividness plays with kinetic appeal when joined by Fuhrman.
The plot of the movie is not dissimilar from others in this sub-genre. What ORPHAN brings to the mix is well paced tension and some neat visuals by way of camera work and concept (the black light images were wonderfully malevolent). The seemingly single-shot playground sequence was inspired even though you probably know what's going to happen. The film seemed a little long and The Husband (Peter Sarsgaard) a trifling bit generic. However the climax is enough to make one forget that the film is pushing an hour fifty when it starts; and Sarsgaard pulls off several good scenes in the climax for a mini redemption.
As a genre film, I would have to admit ORPHAN is a startling surprise from a movie that was not even in orbit around my radar. Even better, I would have to call it a pretty good movie all around. The movie has some re-baked ideas, but the recipe is different enough to keep it interesting and tasty!