This orphan from hell flick is one of the best killer kids movies I’ve ever seen. It takes its premise and genuinely develops its characters in compelling ways. It begins down clichés of this type of film, but does so with creepiness and real dread thanks to the time spent making us care for the characters. Then it delivers a whopper of a twist that is simply fabulous trash.
Kate (Vera Farmiga, UP IN THE AIR) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard, AN EDUCATION) have a stillborn child. The tragedy hits Kate particularly hard. We jump forward in time and Kate and John have decided to adopt. They go to an orphanage where they meet the smart, talented Russian girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman, HOUNDDOG). She's a bit of an outsider, dressed in clothes out of the American Girl catalog. The Colemans’ son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett, STAR TREK) gets jealous of the attention his parents give the strange new girl in their house, but their deaf-mute daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) finds a new friend.
The film builds the adoption of the young girl naturally, allowing the audience into the story through real grounded emotions. Esther comes off eccentric at first than slowly develops a more uneasy and than violent personality. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (HOUSE OF WAX) and writers Alex Mace and David Johnson take their time getting to the more traditional trappings of a psycho kid story. By then we’ve started to learn more about the problems between Kate and John, and Esther serves as a wedge between them. The emotional drive becomes learning about the motivations of the characters. While the twist is preposterous, if you take it at face value, it makes psychological sense and adds depth to the entire story.
Making everything more believable is the honest performances. Farmiga and Sarsgaard make the parents seem like real people trying to find the middle ground between making the new edition to their family feel welcome and disciplining her when she acts out. When Kate tells John about a troubling exchange with Esther, they laugh about it while they discuss how to deal with it. Fuhrman really sticks out for the maturity she brings to the role, especially toward the more challenging parts at the end. She is 100% believable no matter how crazy things get. One of the trappings of a role like hers is to warp the performance as new revelations unfold about her character. She keeps her performance consistent over the course of the film.
The film's only real hiccup is the use of that frustrating device of having one parent oblivious to the scary signs right in front of them. The film does it's best to make it work, but it gets to a point where you want to shake that character and say, "how can you not see that the girl is messed up?" And yet the story finds some irony in not trusting your spouse in the end.
Esther has more on her mind than penmanship badges. She doesn't need omen-obsessed nannies to do her bidding. She is capable of handling things on her own. Her ladylike attitude and her artistic skills lure Kate and John in. She observes them, knowing very well how to play them against each other. When strange and deadly events start occurring around her, Kate begins to wonder who they really brought into their home. The answer messes with your head.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
