Warner Bros. Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment

Written By: David Johnson (screenplay) and Alex Mace (story)

The latest horror film to feature a child with murderous intentions, “Orphan” is an trashy and disposable mess of a film. Riddled with plot holes a mile wide and offering some of the most unlikeable characters seen in a long while, “Orphan” provides a few entertaining moments which some horror fans might like or love, and others may find as silly and unnecessary.

After the tragic stillbirth of their third child, John and Kate Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga), have finalized the steps necessary to adopt a child – a 9-year old girl named Esther who dazzles the Colemans with an intellect, wit, and demeanor well beyond her years. The Colemans integrate Esther into their home with their 10-year old son, Danny, who is a constant behavior problem, and their 6-year old daughter, Maxine, who suffers from deafness and can only communicate through sign language. As efforts to integrate Esther into the Coleman house seem to go well initially, long-standing cracks in Kate and John’s marriage begin to resurface and strange and discomforting events start occurring in and around the Colemans daily life. As Esther begins to have her lies and half-truths come to light, she is seemingly not the little orphaned girl Kate and John believed her to be. Faced with a marriage rapidly falling apart and their family dynamic being threatened more and more on a daily basis, the Colemans are faced with unraveling the mystery of the increasingly dangerous events happening in and around them, and whether or not their new daughter, Esther, is everything that she appeared to be.

To say that “Orphan” is entertaining is one thing, to say it is good or well-made is quite another. Working well in its favor is a great, if not uncomfortable seat-shifting performance from 12-year old actress Isabelle Fuhrman. Fuhrman, in her first starring role, is commanding as Esther, the orphan at the center of all of the goings-on. As good as she is, little can be said about the other elements present in the film.

Casting two critically acclaimed actors such as Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga is a bit of a coup for a film like this. Perhaps Sarsgaard (Kinsey, Jarhead, An Education) and Farmiga (The Departed, Up In The Air) both desired to do something against the more independent-made, dramatic work they are used to starring in. Both have impressive bodies of work in recent years and casting them as John and Kate appears on its surface to attempt to give “Orphan” some kind of credibility. However, powered by David Johnson’s deeply flawed screenplay, Kate and John come off as selfish, whiny, and miserable people, who I could not imagine spending more than 5 minutes with in any form of conversation. They bicker, they fight, they readily rehash old problems, and all the while I wondered out loud how, with their particular histories, they ever could have passed a home study. Every handful of minutes, we hear more and more about the troubles Kate and John have endured together – infidelities, alcoholism, family tragedy, etc. Even if they were identifiable and likable characters, their relationship has no realism because it is structured on cliched story devices. Kate and John’s entire marriage becomes nothing more than a contrivance for the plot to push through and chug forward.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously made the 2005 horror film, “House of Wax” (yes, the Paris Hilton film), “Orphan” tries to lay the foundation for suspense and provides a few dark comedic laughs. Unfortunately, Collet-Serra’s approach in drawing out fear and intensity are through the implementing of lazy and boring jump scares and annoying, exaggerated sound tricks and techniques. As mentioned, the script does Collet-Serra little favors. Large logical gaps are constant, especially as the mysteries surrounding Esther move to the forefront of the story. When “Orphan” pivots on a ludicrous and unbelievable plot twist in its final 15-20 minutes, the whole effort is so implausible, you are left shaking your head and laughing – and not in a good way either.

“Orphan” performed well enough at the box office that I imagine “Orphan 2″ and “Orphan 3″ will come along and then straight-to-DVD or straight-to-cable remakes will be par for the course. More interesting for my eye will be to see what becomes of Isabelle Fuhrman. Will she be typecast in these “bad seed” kind of roles, or will her noticeable talents bring her more complex and challenging roles? Let’s hope for the latter, as “Orphan” is really only watchable for her performance.

Should I See It?

YES

Horror fans who love “Bad Seed” films will be drawn to this and for those initiated, may find it much better than I did.

You could care less about plot holes and an absence of logic, and just want to shut off your mind and be entertained.

I must acknowledge that if you appreciate charismatic villains in horror and/or suspense, this one has a 12-year old who fits the bill to a “T”.

NO

At times, “Orphan” attempts to hit on deeper themes, which are grossly out-of-place and ring rather hollow. Without use of spoilers, some of the subject matter touched on above is dealt with in such a way that might be offensive to some who have had real-life struggles and tragedies.

Despite Fuhrman’s work, “Orphan” is rather tired filmmaking and offers nothing you haven’t seen before.

You like movies to make sense and avoid glaring lapses of even the simplest of logic.