No Ordinary Fool

The central character of Kate Coleman (Vera Farrniga) lost her third child during pregnancy. The film begins at a time when she is starting to feel strong enough to take the love that she still feels for that child and use it now to give an orphaned one a new life. Unfortunately, her husband John (Peter Sarsgaard) and she have the misfortune to adopt a cuckoo and all manner of horror is about to befall them. The film then relies on many familiar tension-inducing techniques to gives its audience cold chills and goosebumps aplenty. At the same time, there is also something unnervingly different taking place here and the ending is as audacious as it is preposterous.

Inevitably, whenever scary children are involved, it is hard to overlook the influence of forerunners such as The Omen and The Exorcist. However, what becomes apparent is that rather than borrow from these films, director Jaume Collet-Serra is actually exploiting the audience’s familiarity with them for his own purposes. Abetted by a creepily atmospheric score from composer John Ottman and an unnervingly assured and otherworldly performance from Isabelle Fuhrman as the enfant terrible Esther, the result is a surprisingly entertaining film in terms of how it tantalises and teases its audience throughout.

There are some negative criticisms worth making though.

Firstly, knowing some people who have sadly been left deeply traumatised by stillbirth experiences, I found the opening scene to be insensitive, gratuitously horrific, and likely to cause profound upset for some audience members. Seeing as the film is out on general release, this point is particularly pertinent. Secondly, if two roles in this film were to be gender-reversed, I have little doubt that this work would have been widely condemned as a misogynistic absurdity. However, just as with women indulging in onscreen sexual relationships with minors, portraying men in such negative and stereotypical terms seems to be generally received with humour.

Moreover, there are quite a number of disconcerting moments in this film that Collet-Serra seems to have included with little apparent purpose other than for their sensationalist value. Given that some of these incidents cut pretty close to the bone in terms of their realism, the manner in which children are portrayed here as being unable to talk to their parents definitely borders on the irresponsible. Within the realms of adult make-believe, I would still support the argument as to why such films are permissible. However, it is certainly not one that I would like anyone under the recommended rating of 16 to ever watch – not because Orphan is scary (it is!), rather because it is just too casual in terms of how it blurs certain boundaries.