Midway through the loopy horror yarn Orphan, the adoptive parents of little 9-year-old Esther are told that "trouble has a way of finding" their little Russian moppet.This shouldn't come as a news flash because Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), the sole survivor of a house fire that killed the members of her previous family, has already nearly murdered a neighborhood kid and displayed powers of persuasion that would indicate there's some KGB in her DNA.
Orphan, a product of Joel Silver's Dark Castle production house, falls squarely into the creepy-kid horror subgenre, though it does offer an envelope-pushing twist that takes it far afield from the usual spawn-of-Satan trappings. Clocking in at more than two hours, the movie teeters between psychological horror and violent bloodletting and, as such, probably won't completely satisfy fans in either camp.
The film does boast fine, slumming performances from Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, playing John and Kate, the couple coping with Esther's alarming antics. Fresh off a stillbirth and dealing with Kate's crippling alcoholism and John's wandering eye, these folks probably aren't ideal candidates for adoption. But St. Mariana's Home for Girls doesn't seem to be big on background checks - for prospective parents or its own charges - so it's best not to get hung up on such details.
Farmiga's involvement is curious, because she just went down the mother-of-a-monster-child route two years ago with the superior Joshua. More curious is Fuhrman's participation. Is the inevitable therapy worth the title role?
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