Too slow for its own good

Rating: 6/10 (2 August 2009)

Vera and John Coleman (Vera Farminga and Peter Sarsgaard) adopt a 9 year old girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). They already have two other kids--a younger girl named Max (Aryana Engineer) and an older boy named Daniel (Jimmy Bennett). We slowly (TOO slowly) discover that there's something wrong with Esther and it leads to horror and murder.
**DEFINITE PLOT SPOILERS** Well-done but just too long (123 minutes). This idea has been done before ("The Bad Seed", "The Good Son") so this movie seems to drag everything out. It's also uncomfortable to watch with children always being threatened or (possibly) killed. In one particularly idiotic oversight one kid's fate is left hanging in the air at the end of the movie! I should mention that it's not a blood and guts horror film (except for one VERY bloody stabbing) but, at the end, it turns into a boring, by the numbers stalking where the killer keeps coming back again and again and again. Also the explanation about Esther at the end doesn't really make much sense but it IS original. On the plus side the acting is good especially by Farmiga and Fuhrman. Only Sarsgaard disappoints but that's because the script makes his character seem like a total idiot! There's also a GREAT moment where Farmiga slaps Fuhrman down (my audience broke out in applause). So--it has its moments but is very disturbing to watch at times and just drags on. I give it a 6.