Quick Review: Orphan

Let's just stare at Peter Sarsgaard for a moment...mmmmm...

There we go. I can't quite figure out how, with so many smaller, independent (or indie-minded) films like "Kinsey" and "Garden State" and "Year Of The Dog" on his resume, he ended up in "Orphan," a sometimes-formulaic but over-the-top fun horror movie. Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga are a married couple who, after their third child is stillborn, decide to adopt. At the orphanage they see a 9-year-old girl by herself painting instead of running around playing like the other girls because, she says, she's "different." They decide to adopt her, and everyone finds out (some more quickly than others) just how different she is. It starts slowly but the trashy fun quotient really starts to click in a scene where the girl sees her new parents engaged in some sexual activity...in the kitchen...and her mother talks to her the next day about what she saw. When the girl utters a certain four-word sentence the theater erupted in laughter, and on it went. There's a twist near the end of the movie that I didn't see coming. The end seemed to drag on too long, but maybe that was because I had a large diet soda and really needed to get to the restroom. My grade: B