You'll wish the ending was not so laughably absurd

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2009)

After the loss of their third child, Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) still want to have a child and decide to adopt. They want a girl, and after a visit to a local girls' orphanage, decide on the nine-year-old Russian Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). She seems to know a lot for a kid her age, and acts more incredibly polite and proper than anyone could ever expect. But as strange and bizarre things begin to occur, Kate begins to think Esther is not exactly who they thought she was.
For a movie as standard sounding and looking as Orphan, I was expecting a predictable movie with a few scares. I was told the ending well before seeing it, but even with expecting the twist, I still was fairly impressed by just how well done the film was. The film manages to work in solemn reverence of films about evil children that have come before, but adds its own stroke of frights and excitement. It aims to be bizarre and horrify, and it mostly manages to pull this small task off. The storyline stays consistent until the ending, adding layers of baffling questions on top of each other. We really feel for Kate as her whole moral fabric begins to fall apart trying to figure out Esther's past, and we really learn to hate Esther for all the games she keeps playing with the family.
But then the ending comes, and it feels like a bullet train collided with your brain head on. I was prepared for the most unlikely twist I have ever heard, but knowing does not nearly prepare you for how laughably ludicrous it is. It just comes as so unlikely, so unpredictable and is played out so silly that you realize why it is so unique and why no one even bothered to think of it before. The only reason it works the way it is, is because of how original an idea it is, and how totally unexpected it comes after watching the rest of the film. I can only imagine how baffled people who knew nothing about the ending felt after the twist was revealed. It is not as earth shattering an event as finding out who Keyser Soze was in The Usual Suspects or the real relationship between the Narrator and Tyler Durdan in Fight Club, but it does make you briefly want to reconsider everything that happens in the film up to that point.
In a way, the out-of-left-field ending actually ruins the film. Up to that point, it is a tense thriller that manages to disturb in ways few films can (with its surprisingly obscene violence and fairly enigmatic villain). But after that point, it just descends into being ridiculous and borders on self parody. I realize the effect the filmmakers were going for, but it just transcends into not being anywhere near as worthwhile an idea as it should. The audience should be mortified by the truth, not paralyzed into laughter. Even with the events that come after the big reveal, all you can do is laugh at what the movie quickly becomes. While I cannot really think of any better way to end the film, it just seems so off-putting letting the filmmakers get away with something so preposterous. It is the worst kind of cheat; one that does away with anything the film had going for it. And for a low key horror film like this, it makes for a truly disappointing final product.
The film is not all triumph before the ending. While I enjoyed the slow build of revealing the secrets of how troubled the family was prior to Esther's adoption, the entire plot line of Kate trying to figure out Esther's past is a bit hit or miss. Watching everyone doubt Kate over and over again got a bit tedious, and got rather annoying after awhile. Watching the kids act out of fear for their lives was great, but watching the adults otherwise completely ignore their outright cries for help (sometimes literal cries) was nearly as silly as the ending. The film manages to wrap itself so well that these little tidbits just work against it deeply.
Farmiga and Sarsgaard work fairly well together, delivering believable performances as a couple in crisis. On his own, Sarsgaard spends a lot of time basically going through the motions, giving the expected responses without an immense amount of emotion for the most part. This is a little disheartening to note, as Farmiga is a force to be reckoned with throughout the film. She has not been on the Hollywood scene for long, and has already acted in a similar evil child film (Joshua with Sam Rockwell), but she really proves her chops here. She rises above the material, looking every bit as worn and tired as her character is. It takes awhile to learn just what is wrong with her, but it is worth every moment you wait simply to see how she reacts to what happens.
The children fare even better. Jimmy Bennett does a great job swapping tones and body language, and Aryana Engineer is simply magnificent as the deaf-mute daughter. Really impressive work here on the filmmakers' part by adding in a significant emphasis on the use of sign language by the characters (and totally muted scenes). But Fuhrman is the reason to watch the film. This twelve-year-old delivers the scariest child performance in a long time, and is reason enough to watch the film. She just has an aura all her own that makes every moment she pops up more memorable than the next. If she does not get more work because of this film, then there is simply no justice left in the system. The film may become a train wreck, but watching it get there with Fuhrman in control is the only way it stays watchable.
7/10.
(Portions of this review originally appeared on http://www.dvdfanatic.com).