Orphan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Orphan
An "outwardly angelic little girl" gets adopted by a new family consisting of Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga, and then begins to unleash her hidden evilness. In his review, Peter Martin wrote that Orphan "is so bats*** crazy that it wears you down just enough to accept the lunacy and enjoy the movie for what it is: every parent's worst nightmare, writ large in childish crayon." Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Whatever Works
Woody Allen's follow-up to Vicky Cristina Barcelona and return to the Big Apple takes his old man self out of the equation to give a new dude (played by Larry David) some May-December romance with Evan Rachel Wood. Nick Schager wasn't sold, and in his review, he wrote: "rather than an inspired meeting of kindred minds, their collaboration does little except reinforce the notion that Allen's creative well has long since run dry, his films now split into either inert, heavy-handed, detached spectacles of pretty people doing naughty things in foreign locales (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), or leaden comedic larks in which notable names embody Allen's archetypal kvetching role." Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
The next installment in the family film series. In his review, William Goss wrote: "All in all, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is an improvement over its massively forgettable predecessor: generally inoffensive (save perhaps for history buffs), a bit more charming than most of the non-Pixar competition, and frivolous in the best possible sense." Buy it for the family film collection. Also on Blu-ray.

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Also out: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Nothing Like the Holidays, Night of the Creeps, Criminal Ways, Stan Helsing

So here we have it, the summer movie season finally winding down, and maybe it's just us, but a couple of peculiar trends have cropped up since May that we thought were worth bringing to light. For starters, we've only further elaborated on Eric's early indicator that puking was 'in' this year (seriously, it's gotten to be a pretty considerable theme), and as for the rest, you can check them out after the jump. Some spoilers follow. And if there are any corrections or additions to be made, please pipe up in the comments, and do so gently.

Attempting to market Funny People as a typical Adam Sandler comedy was quixotic, and as another laugh riot from the Apatow factory only marginally less so. Still, the combination of Sandler and Apatow (and, probably, Rogen) was enough to get the off-kilter, two-and-a-half-hour dramedy off to a $23 million start -- not one for the record books, but hey, not too far off the opening numbers for Apatow's Knocked Up and Sandler's Bedtime Stories. There are shades of M. Night Shyamalan in Judd Apatow, in the way that he appears to be moving from blockbuster crowdpleasers to more personal, slightly odd films that not everyone "gets."

Aliens in the Attic, hidden from critics and not really sold as any sort of event, unsurprisingly ended up with a middling $7.8 million -- a minor opening for a minor flick. The independently-distributed horror film The Collector, from some of the folks behind the Saw franchise, debuted in 11th place and $3.6 million; not great either, but probably above expectations, and perhaps an indication of how many ticket buyers are willing to see a horror movie, any horror movie, on a given weekend. (500) Days of Summer continues to do very well in limited release, with the highest per-screen average in the top 20. Next week, when the film expands to over 1000 screens, will be the real test.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince found its footing a bit in its third weekend after last week's big tumble; it won't wind up atop the franchise, but may make a run for second place. And I was glad to see Orphan hold up at least semi-respectably after a weak start. That's one summer movie that deserves better than it got.

The weekend's top 12 after the jump.

Sometimes -- more often than I'd care to admit -- I'm wrong about just how the weekend's box office will play out. But I'm rarely gobsmacked like I am this week. I expected G-Force to be part of the Disney live action also rans -- at best, I thought it would put up Race to Witch Mountain-type numbers; maybe $24 million. And I thought that it would handily be beaten by the well-liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, coming off a franchise record opening.

That is not how the estimates have it. As of Sunday, the guinea pig spy movie is ahead of Half-Blood Prince by just over $2 million: $32.2 to Potter's $30. Potter tumbled over 60% from its opening -- actually not the biggest drop-off in series history, which honor belongs, strangely, to Prisoner of Azkaban. Though I wouldn't shed any tears for the folks at Warner Bros., what with the film's worldwide gross breaking $600 million, the drop is a bit of a disappointment for the well-reviewed sixth film. G-Force, I guess, is a triumph for talking CGI animals and 3D.

Okay, so I've never been much for the company of kids. which may make me extra-susceptible when it comes to the evil deeds and manipulations of a perfectly precious child on-screen. It's an easy button to push, though -- after all, who would ever suspect, let alone harm a vengeful little moppet?

None of that appeal escapes tomorrow's release, Orphan, and it certainly isn't the first time that horror and horseplay have mixed on film. While I'm tempted to include that little girl from [REC] (and also Quarantine, I suppose) for giving me the willies, I won't because she wasn't the chief antagonist, and the only reason I'm leaving Children of the Corn off the list is, well, I haven't actually seen that yet. And although it doesn't hit Stateside shelves until this October, keep an eye out for the very tense import, The Children.

But worry not: even with the exceptions, there's certainly no shortage of other brats to choose from.

High-gloss thrillers rarely elicit gales of unintentional laughter. Orphan is so bats*** crazy that it wears you down just enough to accept the lunacy and enjoy the movie for what it is: every parent's worst nightmare, writ large in childish crayon. For more than one reason, adoption advocacy groups can stop worrying. Although it starts off calm and determined, Orphan eventually descends into that weird territory where it might be OK to talk back to the screen.

For the sake of the other patrons in the audience, I don't actually recommend doing so, but it's hard to keep your mouth shut when you see some of the outrageous actions presented on screen. And it's so serious! If every parent frets that one of their children might be a "bad seed," Orphan takes that fear and amplifies it in twisted ways, dramatizing a bad seed gone beyond evil, a character who is gleefully demented and wickedly scheming, far beyond human comprehension in one so little. Yet the opening sequences are so skillfully handled that the film builds up a measure of goodwill, which makes it eminently watchable and keeps it from becoming a complete disaster.

Nearly all of that goodwill is due to the persuasive performances of Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. As Kate and John, parents of two young children, they are still grieving the loss of a stillborn daughter. After two years, John is ready to move forward and wants to adopt a child; Kate is less certain, but wants to please her long-suffering husband. Enter Esther, who they little suspect is the latest edition of the prototypical 'demon child from hell.'

As expected, Harry Potter cast an effective spell over moviegoers taking the top spot at the box office and out grossing the series' last installment. Here's the top five:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $77.8 million ($158 million for Wednesday through Sunday)
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $17.6 million
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: $13.7 million
4. Bruno: $8.3 million
5. The Proposal: $8.3 million

This is the first time since the beginning of June that we've had three major releases in a single weekend.

G-Force
What's It All About: Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Oscar-winning effects artist Hoyt Yeatman, G-Force is a 3-D family comedy about talking guinea pigs working in the field of high tech espionage.
Why It Might Do Well: No doubt this was greenlit after Alvin and the Chipmunks started raking in the dough. If CGI chipmunks can pull in $360 million worldwide then why not guinea pigs? The impressive voice cast, which includes Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, and Tracy Morgan, can only help matters.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Have you ever actually smelled a guinea pig?
Number of Theaters: 3,200
Prediction: $29 million

Orphan
What's It All About: Thriller about a couple who adopt a young girl whose sweet and innocent demeanor is covering up much darker tendencies.
Why It Might Do Well: The creepy little kid horror sub-genre has a long history as I mentioned here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The notion of a homicidal rug rat may be too disturbing for some.
Number of Theaters: 2,600
Prediction: $14 million

Peter Sarsgaard made his big-screen debut in 1995's Dead Man Walking as the murder victim Walter Delacroix, but his breakthrough performance was in 1999's Boys Don't Cry as John Lotter, one of the killers of transgendered man Brandon Teena. Since then, he's become famous for his nuanced performances in a wide variety of films like Shattered Glass, Kinsey, Jarhead, and the upcoming An Education.

If you have missed the ubiquitous and creepy posters for his new movie with Vera Farmiga, Orphan, let me give you a quick synopsis. After Kate Coleman (Farmiga) has a stillborn baby, she and her husband John (Sarsgaard) decide to adopt Esther, a deadly serious Russian orphan who wears ribbons around her neck and wrists and old-fashioned ruffly dresses played by Isabelle Fuhrman. But things keep going wrong when Esther's around... hence the tagline in those ubiquitous and creepy posters with the tagline "There's something wrong with Esther."

After a long weekend of interviews and roundtables, Peter Sarsgaard was kind enough to talk to me over the phone about his favorite horror movies, the Orphan protests, and much more -- right here at HorrorSquad!

Jaume Collet-Serra has directed three films thus far - the slasher film House of Wax, a slasher film that was marketed largely on the prospect of seeing Paris Hilton die; Goal II: Living The Dream, which answered many of the burning questions left over from the original Goal; and Orphan, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga as adoptive parents who invite an unholy terror into their homes. During the press day for Orphan, which opens Friday nationwide, Collet-Serra indicated he already has his fourth film lined up and ready to go.

"It's coming," Collet-Serra said of Unknown White Male, a thriller that reunites him with his House of Wax and Orphan producer Joel Silver. "It's shooting in the winter in Berlin, and that's a great script. It's a search for identity, which is something that everybody is looking for in their lives, like who they are, so that's a great thing. The premise is just fantastic, the first 15 minutes, a guy waking up from a coma and realizing that he's been replaced by somebody else, I think that's one of the greatest first 15 minutes that I've read."

As for its stars? Collet-Serra declined to offer names, but when a journalist indicated that they'd spoken to Liam Neeson, he replied, "yeah," but added, "I don't have the contract on my desk. We don't really have anybody official yet."

There are plenty of folks on the internet who devote a significant portion of their writing careers to deconstructing, criticizing or otherwise just condescending to folks with whom they disagree, are forced against their will to share interview time with, or just read and regularly get outraged by. And while I generally prefer to keep my outrage private – not the least of which because I've been guilty of many of the selfsame offenses I might criticize – some quite remarkable behavior at the Orphan junket over the weekend has forced me to come forward, if only to highlight what actors and filmmakers must sometimes endure in the name of promoting their work.

On Saturday morning, Warner Bros. coordinated the print and online portion of their junket for Orphan, a film I didn't much like but was very interested in discussing with cast and crew members, including producer Joel Silver, screenwriter David Leslie Johnson, director Jaume Collet-Serra, and stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and 12-year-old newcomer Isabelle Fuhrman. The writer and director were paired, and the actors all sat together as a group of 15-20 journalists – decidedly larger than normal, but mostly populated with familiar faces – peppered them with questions about the film, their participation and other musings best left for catty comments on individual Facebook postings.

Suffice it to say that there are always "agenda" questions asked regardless of the room in which one sits; someone will almost always want to know about their next project, what fitness regimen a star maintains, or what they do over Labor Day weekend. But quite frankly, there's a difference between off-topic inquiries and just plain inappropriate questions, whether they're asked deliberately or not. As such, it seemed appropriate to compile a list of the five dumbest questions overheard at the Orphan junket, even if (thankfully) screenwriter Johnson insisted that he didn't think anything bad happened when I apologized to him - via Facebook, of course.