Reeling from the stillbirth of what would have been their third child, an upper-crust couple hits the local orphanage, where they pick out a special little girl (Isabelle Fuhrman) with caterpillar eyebrows, a thick Russian accent, a bottomless vintage wardrobe, and homicide in her heart. The mom (Vera Farmiga) picks up on the threat to her biological progeny relatively early, but dopey dad (Peter Sarsgaard) is a sucker for preteen feminine wiles. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax) endows this ugly mess with a slew of unintentional laughs, but not enough to repay the 123-minute time suck. Screenwriters David Johnson and Alex Mace deliver one of the stupidest “twist endings” in the history of storytelling. R, 123 min.
Orphan
R • 2009