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Nominate-best-2010

Review: Orphan

Delightfully gonzo
By BRETT MICHEL  |  July 28, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars

 

John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kate (Vera Farmiga) don't have eight children to contend with, but after the miscarriage of their daughter, they adopt, bringing their brood to three. Perhaps they should have cut their losses. The poster for the latest from Jaume Collet-Serra (director of the 1995 House of Wax) warns, "There's something wrong with Esther."

As if the dark, ee-vil eyes of the preternaturally intelligent nine-year-old Russian orphan (Isabelle Fuhrman) weren't a dead give-away. The film's snowy white palette becomes stained with blood not long after the homicidally gifted girl begins playing Russian roulette with her adorable little deaf (yes, lip reading factors into the plot) sister Max (Aryana Engineer) threatens to excise the "hairless little prick" of her brother Danny (Jimmy Bennett) with a box cutter, and grows maybe a tad too close to dad.

Meanwhile, recovering alcoholic mom is hilariously driven to google "kids who kill" en route to the film's delightfully gonzo final twist.

Related: Review: Up In the Air, Review: An Education, Delay of game, More more >
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ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: WHEN IN ROME  |  February 02, 2010
    Exhibits neither an eye nor an ear for comedy.
  •   REVIEW: TOOTH FAIRY  |  January 26, 2010
    Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dons a pink tutu and wings as Derek, a hockey player who's earned the nickname "The Tooth Fairy" for his knack for knocking out opposing players' bicuspids on the ice.
  •   REVIEW: LEAP YEAR  |  January 13, 2010
    Why, Amy Adams, why?
  •   REVIEW: THE SPY NEXT DOOR  |  January 13, 2010
    Let’s hope Chan’s fans back East never get a whiff of this one.
  •   REVIEW: EVERYBODY'S FINE  |  December 09, 2009
    You'll be forgiven if you mistake Robert De Niro's face for Robert Young's next to Kate Beckinsale's, Drew Barrymore's, and Sam Rockwell's on the poster for Kirk ( Waking Ned Devine ) Jones's remake of Stanno tutti bene .

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL

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