Orphan (2009) - Emotional Family Drama Meets Tense Psychological Thriller - 9/10 (15/02/23)

Orphan is an emotional, gripping and tense psychological thriller that has aged very well and has ultimately even got a prequel thirteen years later. The film revolves around a little family consisting of mother Kate who has just lost her stillborn baby daughter, her empathic but gullible husband John, their slightly arrogant and hostile son Daniel and their intelligent and sympathetic daughter Max. After the loss of the stillborn daughter, the parents decide to adopt nine-year old Esther who impresses the father with her outstanding painting skills and the mother with her seemingly mild manners. While Max starts seeing her older sister as her new best friend, son Daniel finds her old-fashioned dresses strange to say the least. Mysterious events start to occur when Esther joins the family such as the brutal injury of one of her classmates or the stunning disappearance of a sister who had been working at the orphanage. While John thinks that those strange occurrences are mere coincidences, Kate starts having doubts and begins her own dangerous investigations.

This movie convinces on numerous levels. First and foremost, the acting performances are absolutely outstanding. Isabelle Fuhrmann incarnates Esther with much authenticity, depth and mystery as she qualifies as one of the greatest child actresses of all time. Among the adults, Vera Farmiga convincingly plays a tormented mother suffering from the loss of her stillborn daughter and her alcohol addiction while she is progressively being judged and abandoned by everyone around her. Her excellent acting skills add elements of the drama genre to this tense psychological thriller.

Speaking of the covered genres, this movie might be halfway between a family drama and a psychological thriller. It explores convincingly how a seemingly happy family is gradually falling apart while facing more and more shocking and traumatizing challenges and incidents. On the other side, the film also portrays how an extremely dangerous psychopath creates an environment of distrust, isolation and ultimately relentless violence. The movie starts on a relatively innocent tone but gets more tense with every scene as it culminates with a shocking finale. There is also an alternative ending that might be even more surprising that is worth being discovered for sure.

The story of this movie is certainly very interesting to follow. It's obvious from the start that something is wrong with adopted daughter Esther. She speaks strangely, she dresses weirdly and she has sudden violent outbursts. The movie progressively reveals more details about her that make viewers realize that she is more than a troubled child having issues adapting to her new environment. The movie's final twist is quite haunting and memorable in that regard and should keep viewers on the edges of their seats until the credits will start rolling.

As you can read, Orphan offers a wonderful combination of a family drama and a psychological thriller with a clever plot and outstanding acting performances. The only reason why this movie doesn't get the perfect grade is because the final twist shouldn't be too surprising for genre fans. Nevertheless, anyone appreciating tense slow-burn dramas or thrillers should definitely give this movie and its surprisingly convincing prequel a shot.