Orphan (Film)

Orphan is a 2009 American psychological thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson. The film stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and Isabelle Fuhrman. The plot centers on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious 9-year-old girl. Orphan was produced by Joel Silver and Susan Downey of Dark Castle Entertainment, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran of Appian Way Productions. The film was released theatrically in the United States on July 24, 2009. The film received mixed critical reviews, although Fuhrman's performance as Esther was acclaimed. Plot: Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) are experiencing strains in their marriage after their third child is stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is also recovering from alcoholism. The couple decides to adopt a 9-year-old Russian girl, Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) from a local orphanage. While Kate's and John's deaf daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) embraces Esther almost immediately, their son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is less welcoming. Kate suspects that there might be problems in Esther's background when Esther's knowledge of sex extends beyond her age. Her suspicions deepen when Esther seriously injures another girl who had bullied her. Kate is further alarmed when Sister Abigail (C. C. H. Pounder), the head of the orphanage, warns that bad things happen when Esther is around. Esther overhears this and pushes Max into the path of Sister Abigail's car, forcing her to swerve off the road. Esther then kills Sister Abigail with a hammer, and forces Max to help her hide the weapon in their tree house. Kate is convinced that something is very wrong with Esther, but John does not listen to her. Attempting to find out more about the girl, Kate finds Esther's hidden Bible and discovers that it came from the Saarne Institute in Estonia, which she eventually learns is a mental hospital. She emails a picture of Esther to them and asks for more information. When Daniel learns about Sister Abigail's death from Max, he tells her of his plan to retrieve the hammer to prove Esther's guilt. Esther overhears this and confronts Daniel as he searches the tree house, setting it ablaze in an attempt to kill him and destroy the evidence. Daniel falls from the tree trying to escape, and is knocked unconscious. Esther attempts to finish him off with a rock, but Max stops her. While Daniel is hospitalized, Esther slips into his room and smothers him with a pillow, stopping his heart; doctors quickly revive him. Kate, realizing what happened, attacks Esther, but orderlies help John restrain her. As John takes Esther and Max home, doctors sedate Kate. That night, a provocatively-dressed Esther tries to seduce a drunken John, who finally realizes Kate was right. He tells Esther that he will send her back to the orphanage, upsetting her. Meanwhile, a groggy Kate receives a call from a doctor at the Saarne Institute, who reveals that Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth; she has spent most of her life posing as a little girl and had people adopt her, with the goal of seducing the father and having a relationship with him. The doctor reports that Leena is extremely violent and has murdered at least seven people. The last family, by whom she was adopted in Estonia, was killed by her because the father had rejected her sexual advances. Kate tries to get back home to stop Esther, and prevent her family from suffering the same fate. Leena flies into a rage after being spurned by John, and ransacks her room, while angrily removing her "little girl" makeup and clothes, revealing the scars from a straitjacket on her neck and wrists, weathered skin, stained teeth, and fully developed breasts. After removing the disguise that enhanced her illusion as the youthful "Esther", Leena kills John. Max witnesses this and hides. Kate rushes home and finds John dead. Leena gets a gun from John's safe and shoots Kate in the arm, then tracks Max down into the greenhouse. Kate manages to knock Leena out, take the gun, and flee with Max. Leena regains consciousness and finds Kate and Max near a frozen pond. She lunges at Kate, knocking the gun away, and hurling them both onto the ice. Max picks up the gun and tries to shoot Leena, but hits and shatters the ice below them instead, causing Kate and Leena to drop into the water. Kate climbs partially out of the pond; Leena, reverting to her "Esther" persona, begs Kate not to let her die while hiding a knife behind her back. Kate angrily responds that she is not her mother and kicks Leena in the face, breaking her neck and sending her back into the pond. Max and Kate are met by the police moments after.