Product: Orphans (1998)
Rating: 4.0
They Miss Their Mum
Dad's long dead and mum just died. The three sons and their wheelchair bound sister need to get her into the ground. Sounds straightforward enough, but events that transpire at the pub after the wake send everything whirling into a tailspin and, things get so out of control, one wonders if they'll ever get back on track.Many have noted this as a dark comedy. True enough, but it's so dark, I'm thinking one needs to create a new category of film. Yes. Some of the things that happen here are darkly funny, but others are just plain dark. This is way off beat but not at all out of the realm of believability. Most of it lies in how the characters treat one another, and how, what they might do to each other in one scene has nothing to do with how they might treat each other in the next. In one scene a family is taking in the wheelchair bound sister. They luckily have a ramp in their complex which was built for their elderly neighbor. Said neighbor scolds them and says they cannot use "her ramp." They tell her to bugger off and use it anyway. Later that night a storm hits, knocks out the power and said neighbor needs to go to them for refuge. They accept her with no questions asked. I somehow don't see that happening with most people.There are so many odd things happening here you simply have to see it to believe it. Each of the sons (and their sister) embark on these Odysseys that put them through emotional wringers and bring each of them to the brink. The story has an arc as do each of the characters. One of the joys for the viewer is to see where each of them ends up.This is an excellent film. The writing is good. The characters are good. Thankfully, the producers saw fit to subtitle it. As it is a Scottish film, the brogue is so thick I would have been lost without them. The only drawback is that I wish it had been shot a bit better. It's a minor complaint given the overall quality of the proceedings. So, if you like offbeat, dark comedies, you'd be hard pressed to do better than this.