Educational Media Reviews Online

Orphans tells the fictional tale of two estranged sisters, five years after their parents’ deaths in an alcohol-related car crash. Told in a linear narrative style, the film examines the impact of the parents’ death on the two clearly maladjusted sisters, and their attempts to reconcile the various problematic issues between them.

Plot-wise, Rosie is invited to her sister, Sonia’s, self-given birthday party at their childhood home. Sonia, an athletic school-teaching alcoholic still lives in the house in an isolated town, while Rosie, an artistic, chronically-out-of-work chain smoking pill addict shares a small apartment in the city. Upon residence in the isolated home, though, the sister’s individual neuroses pick away at the fragile fabric of their relationship as the siblings attempt, pointlessly perhaps, to mend them.

The birthday party has no other guests, though Sonia attempts to hide this fact. Rosie discovers several other significant lies told by her sister; and Sonia indeed keeps her as something of a (willing?) captive on the property. The plot includes a trip to the hospital, the almost-loss of a shared keepsake, entrance to a roller rink…. The actual action is very spare, though the performances prove a great deal of mental activity between the sisters. Indeed, every scene seems to be suffused with tension and neurosis: Many scenes show the sisters beginning a fight and backing away, a sort of angry dance that threatens to constantly erupt. Individual touches such as the few ancillary characters as well as the overall sense of forced nostalgia similar give the film a powerful edge.

But such “imminent” violence is all there really is. The film always feels threatening, suspenseful, and the characters always act as if their strangled emotions are about to explode. But this sense is never fulfilled. There is no real violence, and – worse – even the discovery of significant lies or (possibly invented) revelations are argued momentarily, and then ignored, just to shortly repeat the cycle. Each scene, infused with dread, begins with nothing, develops into an argument and perhaps a physical or emotional attempt to flee the situation, then settles back into a static state. While this ambivalence may be the filmmaker’s intention, it is terribly subtly done, and simply feels like narrative punches have been pulled.

Compared to De Palma’s “Sisters” by others, the unrealized emotions of Orphans dampen the electricity inherent in the script and scenery unfairly.

A promise broken to the deceased mother might explain the cyclical dynamic, but the characters’ intent and actions are merely muddled. Why would anyone put up with either one of the characters’ neurotic and unstable behavior? And indeed, the answer to this is surely the figurative center of the aptly titled Orphans, but the ties that bind them, as it were, are not clear.

Similarly both useful but narratively confounding is Carol Burnett’s public announcement of her parents’ alcoholism that is once or twice shown between scenes. Given the co-dependency and the self-same dynamics of the characters as well, of course, as the nature of the parents’ deaths, though, it is difficult to see how this film is significantly different from any much shorter public service announcement on the effect and dangers of drinking.

The film is beautifully shot, the scenes haunting and “real”-feeling, and the performances very good. But the disturbed and fearful atmosphere of the film never evolves into anything other than “feelings” terror; and while this might be an important comment on drug- and co-dependency, there is an overall sense that while nothing is ever resolved by the film, nothing of significant value is really offered or realized by it either. Does the non-resolution and static dynamics comment on the fruits of neurosis and addiction and their concomitant co-dependency and emotional fragility? If so, it unfortunately makes for a strangely unimpactful narrative.

In all, while this beautiful looking film would surely be of some interest to viewers interested in familial dynamics—especially those tainted by addiction–Orphans is overall not recommended for general collections.

Awards:

• Jury Award, SXSW Film Festival, 2007