Vera Farmiga's (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) Kate is a recovering alcoholic. While in a drunken stupor she did something to lose an unborn baby and permanently damage the hearing of her beautiful pre-school daughter Max. To atone, she and hubby John (Peter Sarsgaard) decide to adopt. That brings nine-year old Esther into the family.
The Russian born kid is not a good fit. She immediately wedges herself between Kate and John. With Max's help Esther targets the couple's son Alex. Esther wears clearly out of style pinafores and does terrible things to a classmate that makes fun of her.
Murder and death follow.
Kate, of course, immediately picks up on Esther's manipulative behavior. John and Kate's counselor are clueless and think Kate's alcoholism and guilt has made her paranoid.
Orphan is a flawed movie with bad characters but it isn't all bad. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (2005's House of Wax) seems to have a sense of humor. The door opens, no one is there, it closes, you expect someone to be there, and they aren't. The camera follows a character closely as if they're being stalked. But no one is there. Even by horror film standards the sound is overly loud. And when things whoosh by, they "really" whoosh by.
Isabelle Fuhrman's Esther also arguably sits close to the top of the list of best kid horror movie villains of all-time. Her dark, kewpie doll eyes are the perfect picture of machinelike malice. Sometimes she has a Russian accent and sometimes she doesn't. You almost think that's on purpose.
Almost.
And the movie is now controversial which means an automatic ka-ching at the box office. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute is upset. Creepy little Esther, in the film's best confrontational scene, tells her adoptive mother that it "must be hard to love an adoptive child as much as your own."
The group, and others that work to place children, worry that it will cast a negative pall over the kids and the process. No kidding. Warner Brothers caved and cut the line from the trailer and is said to have put a disclaimer at the end of the credits that encourages people to adopt.
I didn't stay long enough to find out.
A bigger concern -- it seems to me -- is wondering why someone would make a movie this bad and, two, why anyone would shell out cold, hard-to-come-by-these-days cash to see Orphan.
How much influence do flicks like Orphan have on the real life examples of narcissistic kids that we see for free every day in schools, malls and stores. How do films, TV shows and low-rent DVDs where kids are smarter than adults and sling out one put-down after another, influence what seems to be rampant disrespect for authority of any kind? Do the characters and the music crammed into soulless stories help create a subculture of thugs, gangsters and taggers that mark territory like dogs putting what they consider to be "art" on every blank spot they can find.
Maybe the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute ought to expand its focus. Or actually see what is a pretty good horror movie before filing a complaint.
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'I Don't Know How She Does It' or why they made it
'I Don't Know How She Does It' or why they made it
I not only have nothing nice to say about this movie, but it also is so bad it is a struggle to say anything about it at all.
A better title: I Don’t Know Why She Did It . Could it be “she” has no options other than getting cast as a cliche TV-like character. What else can you do after being stuck for years on TV in Sex and the City ?
-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.
Tilda Swinton helped birth a nightmare called 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'
Tilda Swinton helped birth a nightmare called 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Every mother has a birthing story, the play-by-play narrative that took her across the chasm from independence to attachment. Tilda Swinton is no exception. When the Scottish actress gave birth to her boy-and-girl twins 14 years ago, Swinton, who plays the mother to a troubled son in the new film "We Need to Talk About Kevin," didn't opt for the easy - or perhaps, even the safe - way out. Rather then choose medical intervention when the babies were late, she waited until they were ready to be born on their own. They finally arrived after 43 weeks of pregnancy, weighing in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and 8 pounds, 10 ounces.
'The Thing' among those things to be left alone
'The Thing' among those things to be left alone
Mary Elizabeth Winstead ( Scott Pilgrim vs. The World ) is Kate Lloyd, a paleontologist asked to accompany a not-so mad-acting mad scientist on an expedition to Antarctica.
They’re checking out the discovery of a frozen alien and its ship. The movie is The Thing and other than Winstead, the only other slightly recognizable actor in the cast of mostly unknowns is Joel Edgerton, whose star rose recently in Warrior . He’s an American helicopter pilot and as close as the characters get to a love interest.
-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.
35th Annual Portland International Film Festival begins
35th Annual Portland International Film Festival begins
The 35th Annual Portland International Film Festival has begun. It runs through February 25. For film fans this one is loaded. There are 140 films from 36 different countries — 93 are features and 46 shorts.
Portland isn’t that far from Tri-Cities art film lovers. This entry reviews a few films from the first weekend and Monday. I’ll be posting reviews throughout the series until its conclusion February 25th.
Friday, February 10
Mr. Movie's list of Halloween favorites
Mr. Movie's list of Halloween favorites
I’m going to ramble a bit. Normally when picking a best list you do five or 10. I’m doing six. It just worked out that way.
When you look at my picks you will note I deliberately left The Exorcist off my list. While some think it’s the best horror film of them all, I read the book and it pales in comparison. Other than Linda Blair’s spinning head, lots profanity and vomit, and Mercedes McCambridge’s brilliant work as the dubbed-in demon voice, there isn’t much substance.
I guess at this point you’ve guessed the topic of this post is horror movies for Halloween. You’ll want to get started early. These days they get gobbled up at the few video stores that are left. I know next to nothing about Netflix so I’m not sure what kind of a supply it has for those still doing the mail thing.
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