Orphan
Orphan, not to be confused with he chilling 2007 offering The Orphanage, is laughably predictable. This was clearly fortified by the audience laughter experienced while watching this well constructed string of clichés. In a strong performance Vera Farmiga is Kate Coleman a fragile recovering alcoholic who feels the need to fill the void left by a still born child even with two subsequent well adjusted kids – a teenage son Daniel (Star Treks young J.T. Kirk Jimmy Bennett) and Max (Vancouver's Aryana Engineer) a hearing impaired grade school daughter. She and her supportive husband John (Peter Sarsgaard at his Peter Sarsgaarding best) decide that adopting a child about the right age will be the appropriate therapy and take in a seemingly perfect but somewhat peculiar 11 year old girl of Russian extraction named Esther (eerie newcomer Isabelle Fuhrman). Before long she’s terrified her new siblings and alienated her adoptive parents from one another. On the verge of a nervous breakdown Kate manages to piece together Esther’s hidden past which explains her uncommon talent, wisdom and ruthless behaviour. Orphan is from the director who brought us House of Wax starring Paris Hilton and in that tradition may leave your wallet feeling somewhat orphaned.