Orphan
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounderm James Bennett, Aryana Engineer, Margo Martindale, Karel Roden, Rosemary Dunsmore
Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard) are grief-stricken over the loss of their unborn daughter. As the couple tries to raise their other two children, and heal their troubled marriage, they decide to adopt a child, hoping to give the love that was meant for their daughter to another child who needs it. When they meet 9-year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) at the St. Marina Orphanage, they immediately fall in love with this beautiful, charming, child and bring her home to complete their family. While their son, Daniel (James Bennett), is hostile towards Esther and does not trust her, their deaf-mute daughter, Max (Aryana Engineer) is enchanted with her new sister. When a dangerous chain of events begins to unfold, Kate begins to suspect that there is something malevolent lurking behind Esther’s angelic mask.
Impressions play a powerful, symbolic role in this film, and nowhere are impressions illustrated more perfectly, than in the character of Esther herself…who personifies the adage “things are not always what they appear.”
When Esther first meets her adoptive parents, their first impression of her is that of a beautiful child with perfect manners and a sweet and charming personality. To echo Sister Abigail’s sentiment to John and Kate, Esther is a princess, in every sense of the word. Esther endears herself even more to her new family, when she befriends their young daughter, Max. She learns sign language to impress her new sister and plays with Max outside. She also shares a special moment with her adoptive mother, Kate, when Kate shows Esther how to play the piano and shares the scrapbook of memories that she made to show Esther that she is now part of their family. Kate also shows Esther the memorial rose garden that she created to honor Jessica, the daughter who died during a miscarriage. Her hope in adopting Esther, was to give Esther the love and affection they would have given to Jessica, had she lived. Esther tells Kate that Jessica would have been lucky to have such a wonderful Mommy.
When Kate and John first meet Esther, she is sitting alone in a classroom painting a picture of a lioness and her cubs, and there are other paintings stacked nearby. Esther tells John that her paintings tell beautiful stories…and she goes on to tell him that in her painting, the mother lioness is sad because she has lost her children. She dreams of finding them, and then one day, the mother finds her cubs, and she is happy again. When we see Esther’s paintings displayed in her bedroom, they are beautiful, well-done pieces of art, but when Esther switches the light off, the paintings transform into something much more sinister and gruesome, giving a not-so-subtle hint that Esther is not the charming and adorable child that she appears to be. We also see Esther wearing black ribbons around her neck and wrists. While she is a darling little doll, at first, in her old-fashioned dress and ribbons, those ribbons hide a terrible secret; the scars that Esther obtained when she was in the mental hospital.
The cracks in Esther’s perfect mask are illustrated, both physically and emotionally, in how she behaves toward her adoptive family after the truth of Esther’s past becomes known. While she was initially extremely sweet and affectionate with her sister, Max, Esther soon begins manipulating the little girl to do her bidding for her…even endangering Max’s life on two separate occasions, when it suited Esther’s plan. She also threatens her adoptive brother, Daniel, when she sees Daniel watching the girls in the tree house, and she also attempts to burn Daniel alive in the treehouse, and later smothers Daniel in the hospital, when Daniel attempts to warn his mother of Esther’s secret. Although she was a sweet and charming daughter to Kate, at first, when Esther sees Kate and her husband showing each other affection, it ignites Esther’s jealousy and rage, and she begins spinning a web of manipulation and deceit against Kate, and ultimately, poisons Kate’s love for her. When John suggests that Esther do something nice for Kate, to show her new Mommy how she loves her, Esther shows her “love” to Kate, by destroying the rose bush that Kate planted in memory of her precious daughter, Jessica.
Esther also makes her Daddy believe that Kate deliberately broke Esther’s arm in a drunken rage after she discovered the “gift” of the roses, and she allowed the car to crash with Max still inside it (both lies that Esther created to poison John’s trust in his wife). While Esther’s manipulation of her family is the very catalyst which allows Kate to break the shackles of grief and addiction and protect her children from Esther, John seems completely oblivious to Esther's schemes. All pretense of Esther being his darling little princess vanishes, however, when Esther reveals her true face to John and tries to seduce him after a terrible fire nearly kills John’s son. When John rejects Esther’s seductive charms, she transforms into her true self…a ravaged shell of a woman, whose sole purpose is inflicting revenge. In the end, Kate kept her promise to her children...she loved Max and Daniel enough to protect them from the monster who sought to destroy their family.
Orphan is a movie that illustrates the power of a mother’s love, and how the strength of that love can both heal and destroy. The casting is exceptional, particularly in the case of Emily Blunt as Kate, and Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther. The story, while a bit heavy on the jump scares, creates a satisfying combination of suspense that is tinged in sadness and despair, and allows the audience to understand the emotional essence of a truly unique character.
© 2022 Keriane Kellogg
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounderm James Bennett, Aryana Engineer, Margo Martindale, Karel Roden, Rosemary Dunsmore
Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard) are grief-stricken over the loss of their unborn daughter. As the couple tries to raise their other two children, and heal their troubled marriage, they decide to adopt a child, hoping to give the love that was meant for their daughter to another child who needs it. When they meet 9-year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) at the St. Marina Orphanage, they immediately fall in love with this beautiful, charming, child and bring her home to complete their family. While their son, Daniel (James Bennett), is hostile towards Esther and does not trust her, their deaf-mute daughter, Max (Aryana Engineer) is enchanted with her new sister. When a dangerous chain of events begins to unfold, Kate begins to suspect that there is something malevolent lurking behind Esther’s angelic mask.
Impressions play a powerful, symbolic role in this film, and nowhere are impressions illustrated more perfectly, than in the character of Esther herself…who personifies the adage “things are not always what they appear.”
When Esther first meets her adoptive parents, their first impression of her is that of a beautiful child with perfect manners and a sweet and charming personality. To echo Sister Abigail’s sentiment to John and Kate, Esther is a princess, in every sense of the word. Esther endears herself even more to her new family, when she befriends their young daughter, Max. She learns sign language to impress her new sister and plays with Max outside. She also shares a special moment with her adoptive mother, Kate, when Kate shows Esther how to play the piano and shares the scrapbook of memories that she made to show Esther that she is now part of their family. Kate also shows Esther the memorial rose garden that she created to honor Jessica, the daughter who died during a miscarriage. Her hope in adopting Esther, was to give Esther the love and affection they would have given to Jessica, had she lived. Esther tells Kate that Jessica would have been lucky to have such a wonderful Mommy.
When Kate and John first meet Esther, she is sitting alone in a classroom painting a picture of a lioness and her cubs, and there are other paintings stacked nearby. Esther tells John that her paintings tell beautiful stories…and she goes on to tell him that in her painting, the mother lioness is sad because she has lost her children. She dreams of finding them, and then one day, the mother finds her cubs, and she is happy again. When we see Esther’s paintings displayed in her bedroom, they are beautiful, well-done pieces of art, but when Esther switches the light off, the paintings transform into something much more sinister and gruesome, giving a not-so-subtle hint that Esther is not the charming and adorable child that she appears to be. We also see Esther wearing black ribbons around her neck and wrists. While she is a darling little doll, at first, in her old-fashioned dress and ribbons, those ribbons hide a terrible secret; the scars that Esther obtained when she was in the mental hospital.
The cracks in Esther’s perfect mask are illustrated, both physically and emotionally, in how she behaves toward her adoptive family after the truth of Esther’s past becomes known. While she was initially extremely sweet and affectionate with her sister, Max, Esther soon begins manipulating the little girl to do her bidding for her…even endangering Max’s life on two separate occasions, when it suited Esther’s plan. She also threatens her adoptive brother, Daniel, when she sees Daniel watching the girls in the tree house, and she also attempts to burn Daniel alive in the treehouse, and later smothers Daniel in the hospital, when Daniel attempts to warn his mother of Esther’s secret. Although she was a sweet and charming daughter to Kate, at first, when Esther sees Kate and her husband showing each other affection, it ignites Esther’s jealousy and rage, and she begins spinning a web of manipulation and deceit against Kate, and ultimately, poisons Kate’s love for her. When John suggests that Esther do something nice for Kate, to show her new Mommy how she loves her, Esther shows her “love” to Kate, by destroying the rose bush that Kate planted in memory of her precious daughter, Jessica.
Esther also makes her Daddy believe that Kate deliberately broke Esther’s arm in a drunken rage after she discovered the “gift” of the roses, and she allowed the car to crash with Max still inside it (both lies that Esther created to poison John’s trust in his wife). While Esther’s manipulation of her family is the very catalyst which allows Kate to break the shackles of grief and addiction and protect her children from Esther, John seems completely oblivious to Esther's schemes. All pretense of Esther being his darling little princess vanishes, however, when Esther reveals her true face to John and tries to seduce him after a terrible fire nearly kills John’s son. When John rejects Esther’s seductive charms, she transforms into her true self…a ravaged shell of a woman, whose sole purpose is inflicting revenge. In the end, Kate kept her promise to her children...she loved Max and Daniel enough to protect them from the monster who sought to destroy their family.
Orphan is a movie that illustrates the power of a mother’s love, and how the strength of that love can both heal and destroy. The casting is exceptional, particularly in the case of Emily Blunt as Kate, and Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther. The story, while a bit heavy on the jump scares, creates a satisfying combination of suspense that is tinged in sadness and despair, and allows the audience to understand the emotional essence of a truly unique character.
© 2022 Keriane Kellogg