And the moral of the story is don't adopt, and definitely don't adopt kids if they're foreign. Great.
Many times has Hollywood returned to the creepy kid well, to the extent that they don't even have to tell them to put the lotion in the basket - they've already bundled it in with some shampoo, potpourri, a ribbon, and some soap in the shape of a heart, and are selling it to people who don't know what to do for valentine's day.
To be fair, Esther's is pretty creepy, and Isabelle Fuhrman has always done a good psycho. In fact, most of the acting is on par with horror movies at the good end of the scale. That isn't to say that the acting was brilliant any more than it's saying that acting in horrors are often shitty though.
Jesus - why are you pouring the wine down the sink?! OK kid, hurry up and kill her.
The characters often behaved somewhat unbelievably just to further the plot (which consists entirely of "why won't anyone believe me? Shit marriage! Drinking is bad! Frustration!"). The wife is sort of a moron, but all the other characters are worse. The dad is portrayed without an ounce of sympathy, and both of their biological kids are useless. They also live in a mansion and have vague yet awesome looking jobs, so I'm not inclined to feel any sympathy here. I'm not even sure about what Esther's aims are here. Pretend to be a kid, OK. Seduce the father. Uh, OK. But then why does she get so angry about being viewed as a child? Her whole freaky deal is presented to us in a matter-of-fact kind of way, but I was never really satisfied. She's a great artist though.
Oh yeah, and the reveal that she's actually an adult dwarf came off as a total con to me. It's like how I would end the film if I was going for the cheesiest conclusion possible.
The filming techniques are occasionally interesting, though they often overplay the wobble and move into the realms of irritating rather than creepy. Now and then there is an inspired shot, but then we go the other way and the camerawork confuses the story. The scenes near the end with them all running about in the house are just confusing. Do they live in a maze?
Ah well, good thing they kept a gun in the house anyway. We're always learning important lessons with this movie. Oh and don't say fuck, there's another one.
Orphan: 31.3