Monday, November 30, 2009

ORPHAN Afterthoughts

"Who was Jessica?" Esther lovingly asks Kate, one lazy afternoon."And why does Max talk about her all the time?"
Kate,caught off guard, balks at the unassuming query, and then finally decides to spill details surrounding it."She was my undelivered baby.Sad to say I had a miscarriage.So the doctor had to get rid of her..." Kate recalls in a half-melancholy and half-stressful way."But I believe she's in heaven now."
Esther, unsatisfied,digs for more dirty secrets in the family and brings out sensitive matters including the past womanizing of Kate's husband.
"HOW DARE YOU!"Kate spits.
"And what about your past drinking habits?". Esther insinuates mockingly.
This war-torn situation between the adoptive parent and the adopted-child is just one of the highlights of the highly-acclaimed thriller,"ORPHAN."The story revolves around two desperate parents who seek to adopt a surrogate ,youngest child to complete the family set-up. It is really Kate who can't get over her previous miscarriage-and constantly blames herself for it. She has neverending nighmares and paranoia about the accidental loss,thus,inflicting pain and guilt on her husband as well.
One fateful morning, the duo go to a private orphanage within the neighborhood, and unfortunately picks ESTHER. At first, the head nun, is unsure of what to say.Later on, she nods to the decision, proudly proclaiming: 'Esther is very advanced for her age. Very mature," then she pauses,"the only thing we can't make her undo is the tight collar around her neck. And she always wears long-sleeves...".
Toward the end of the movie,the audience is appalled to discover that the cover-up in Esther's mode of dressing is actually the evidences of her slash-wrists,slash-neck habitual ,suicidal attacks.
John,Kate's adoring and trustful husband innocently defends Esther before her already traumatized wife,Kate. The wife seemingly belives that there's something clearly wrong with Esther. "Look,"she invites,"these are the notes on children who kill. They're superficially charming, they're manipulative, and they have difficulty making friends!".
But the husband is stern."Oh,Esther is just a child.Leave her be!'.
In the climax of the movie,Esther screams at John."I AM NOT A CHILD! STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE A CHILD!".Deep in her privacy,she relishes on John's naked body and sexually fantacizes on her adoptive dad.
In the truest sense of the word, Esther is indeed, no longer a child. She's a midget or a self-proclaimed dwarf. Somehow her growth or stature is abnormal. She can't grow taller than a ten-year-old child. Born in 1973, she's 33 years old and a grown-up woman. These are facts from Searne, a mental hospital in Europe. Esther in an orphanage is just a camoflage. She is deranged and dangerous when freed! Somebody has to get help. Otherwise, the children, Max and her brother, will burn down and die unmercilessly on Esther's hands.
QUICK! And Kate outpaces her steps as she drives randomly toward their house,only to find her dead husband, lying in a pool of his own blood."OH JOHN!".
But where is Max? Where is her angel of a daughter-mute and deaf Max-is she still alive?
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" she bewails and runs after Esther like every dutiful mommy.
In the end, when Esther is almost drowning in a snow-laden lake, she gently prods her adoptive mother."Please mommy,don't let me die..."
Kate, who is now fully aware of Esther's persona, kicks Esther back into the water, "I'M NOT YOUR F__________G MOMMY!".
Now this is a film worthy of its merits,particularly on the term,PARADOX. According to the dictionary, paradox means simply a self-contradictory and false proposition. Furthermore it clings to any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
In one scene, Kate patiently tutors Esther on basic piano playing.Esther pretends to commit minor mistakes. But in reality Esther is a genius in piano-playing. Kate becomes a witness to Esther playing a famous Mozart piece in a flawless way.
Kate shrugs,"But you said you couldn't play the piano!".
"I didn't want to hurt you. What with your deaf daughter you can never teach the beauty of sounds ...". What a bitch Esther truly is!