Fine, but still room for improvement

Rating: 6/10 (23 November 2015)

"Orphan" is a horror mystery thriller from 6 years ago and was the sixth directorial effort for Jaume Collet-Serra. The writer duo Johnson/Mace, however, have not come up with a script before this one, which makes their work even more impressive. The script is certainly among the strongest aspects of this 2-hour movie. Another strength is child actress Isabelle Fuhrman, who certainly elevated this film with her performance. Farmiga was fine too and she was as much of a lead as Fuhrman, but there were sequences, during which she felt really more loud than spot-on with her performance. And finally, the makeup needs a mention too as they carried this movie in terms of the main character's impressive and slow transformation from young girl into middle-aged woman.
Unfortunately, there are also weaknesses. The main one may be Sarsgaard. I don't think it was necessarily a problem I had with his performance, but the character was just so bland and stereotypical. He had an affair back in the day, he does not see how evil the girl is etc. and all this was done so that we would not feel sorry for him after what happens in the end. But is this attempt at justification really necessary? I don't think so. He does not have to be bad to die and there really would not have been anything wrong with a good guy dying, so we even feel sorry for him in this scenario. And how did he die to the girl with a knife while the girl could not even take out Farmiga's character with a gun. Apart from that, she was also a bit too much heroic at the end and in the film in general after we find out everything. She was like the perfect mother/wife who saw through everything so quickly. Or it was ridiculous how the police was always a minute too late. Or the uninspired attempt to create atmosphere with stuff like broken drawers.
Still I must say that the final sequence was very nicely done. It was good drama, very atmospheric and a thrilling confrontation scene between the two main characters. The only scene I'd put slightly above that was the early one on the playground with the twisted ankle. The camera work up there was outstanding this moment. Overall, I must say I quite enjoyed this movie. I would not have minded an even bolder unhappy ending, but it was okay the way they did it. The only other movie I saw from the director was "Unknown" and I enjoyed that one even more. I sure like his stuff and I recommend "Orphan". A very good watch for horror movie fans and I liked that there was no supernatural evil possession element in here. That was absolutely not needed. Nature can be a much bigger freak. This film does not really offer anything innovative that we have not seen before, but it's still a good watch. And finally, if you liked Fuhrman the way I did, feel free to check out the series "Masters of Sex", in which she plays a recurring character.