Orphan Movie

Plot
Kate Coleman (Vera Farmiga) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard) are experiencing strains in their marriage after Kate's third child - "Jessica" - was stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is still recovering from a drinking habit that cost her her job. As a coping mechanism she has scattered Jessica's ashes in their around a white garden rose bush, with a plaque to remember her by. They adopt Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a 9-year-old Russian girl they had met, from the local orphanage. While Kate and John's deaf-mute daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) embraces Esther almost immediately, their son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is less welcoming. The family tries to make Esther feel like part of their family, but once again things exactly do not work out too well.

Kate grows suspicious when Esther, who watched John and her have sex, expresses far more knowledge of sex and its slang than would be expected for a child her age. Not long after Esther arrives, she pushes a schoolmate down a playground slide, who had picked on her, breaking her ankle. Max saw Esther shove the girl, but covers for Esther by saying that the girl "slipped". However, she is further alarmed when Sister Abigail (C.C.H Pounder), the head of the orphanage, warns her and John about Esther's tendency to be around when things go wrong. Esther overhears this and later kills Sister Abigail with a hammer to the head. She convinces Max (puts a gun to her head) to help her hide the body and the hammer. Daniel sees Esther and Max descending from his treehouse from behind a rock, not knowing they hid the hammer there. Later that night, Esther threatens to cut off Daniel's genitals if he tells anyone what he saw.

Kate is told by the orphanage that they cannot find any record of the Russian orphanage Esther came from. However, John does not believe her, despite continued ominous behavior by Esther. That night, Esther deliberately picks flowers for Kate that are from Jessica's plant and Kate pushes her to the ground. Later, Esther breaks her own arm in John's vice and convinces John that Kate broke it in the scuffle from earlier. On Esther's first day back at school, she slips Kate's SUV into neutral, nearly killing Max. Badly shaken, Kate buys two bottles of wine, but at the last minute pours one of them down the drain and leaves the other full.

Kate learns that Esther was housed at a mental institution in Estonia called the Saarnu Institute, but when she expresses misgivings to John, he and her counselor think that Kate is relapsing into her drinking habit. After John produces the other bottle Kate bought the night before, he threatens to leave her unless she gets help.
Daniel learns of the hammer from Max and decides to get it and go to the police. However, Esther sets the treehouse on fire, intending to get rid of the evidence and kill Daniel. Daniel escapes by falling out of the tree, and gets a severe neck injury. Esther tries to finish him off by smashing a brick over his head, but Max shoves her out of the way just in time. Esther again tries to kill him at the hospital by smothering him with a pillow and briefly unhooking his respirator. Doctors rush into the room and manage to save Daniel. Kate, knowing what happened, furiously slaps Esther and knocks her down. Kate is immediately subdued and sedated by doctors.
That night, Esther tries to seduce a drunk and sad John. John realizes Kate was telling the truth all along and threatens to call the orphanage. Esther, angry and hurt at being spurned, ransacks her room and later stabs John. Max witnesses this and hides in her laundry hamper.

As Kate is coming out of sedation, she gets a call from the Saarnu Institute's director, Dr. Värava (Karel Roden), who reveals that Esther isn't a 9-year-old girl at all, but a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a disorder that stunted her physical growth, and has spent most of her life posing as a little girl. The doctor tells Kate that Leena is dangerously psychopathic, and Kate protect her family. Kate rushes home, only to find John dead on the floor. Leena shoots Kate in the arm before she goes to search for Max.

Their chase takes them outside to a frozen pond, where Kate and Leena struggle as Esther attempts to stab Kate. Max is watching the struggle from above the pond. She maneuvers herself down the hill to grab the gun that was dropped during the chase, with the intent of shooting Leena. She misfires and shoots the ice instead, which cracks and both Kate and Leena fall in. Kate crawls out of the hole, followed by Leena, who begs for her life, addressing Kate as "Mommy" 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.

However, in Orphan's DVD which includes an Alternate Ending, shows Leena is still alive, with a broken and bloody face, masking herself with her own cosmetics to create Esther again in Coleman's house. Then after she finishes with her face, she goes downstairs and is rescued by the cops who investigate the house.It is implied that Leena kills both Kate and Max and hides all the truth that had been collected by Kate.

Production
The real life Alma College in St. Thomas, Ontario, which served as the Saarne Institute in the movie.The film was shot in Canada, in the cities of Toronto, Port Hope and Montreal.

Controversy
The film's content, depicting a murderous adopted person, was not well received by the adoption community.The controversy caused filmmakers to change a line in one of their trailers from "It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own," to "I don’t think Mommy likes me very much.Melissa Fay Greene of The Daily Beast commented:

"The movie Orphan comes directly from this unexamined place in popular culture. Esther’s shadowy past includes Eastern Europe (small country named Estonia) she appears normal and sweet, but quickly turns violent and cruel, especially toward her mother. These are clichés. This is the baggage with which we saddle abandoned, orphaned, or disabled children given a fresh start at family life.

Reception
Critical reaction to Orphan has been mixed, with the film earning a rating of 55% (43% among the Top Critics) on Rotten Tomatoes where the consensus is: "While it has moments of dark humor and the requisite scares, Orphan fails to build on its interesting premise and degenerates into a formulaic, sleazy horror/thriller". It also earned a 42 out of 100 on Metacritic.Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Orphan 3½ stars out of 4, writing: "You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also gave a positive review, saying: "Orphan provides everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller, but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surprise."

Todd McCarthy, of Variety was less impressed, writing: "Teasingly enjoyable rubbish through the first hour, Orphan becomes genuine trash during its protracted second half." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "Actors have to eat like the rest of us, if evidently not as much, but you still have to wonder how the independent film mainstays Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard ended up wading through Orphan and, for the most part, not laughing.” Owen Gleiberman of entertainment weekly gave the film a D+ score, saying, "Orphan isn't scary — it's garish and plodding.”

Openly (and at times vehemently) negative reviews are abundant: from "galling, distasteful trash" (Eric D. Snider) to "old-fashioned and trashy horror flick" (Emanuel Levy) and "relentlessly bad", albeit "entertaining" (Rob Vaux).According to Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, "The problem with Orphan isn't merely that the film is idiotic--it's that it's also sleazy, formulaic and repellant.”And according to Keith Phipps from The A.V Club, "If director Jaume Collet-Serra set out to make a parody of horror-film clichés, he succeeded brilliantly."

Although the film received mixed reviews, Isabelle Fuhrman's performance was acclaimed and positively received. Emanuel Levy said of Fuhrman "acquites herself with a strong performance, affecting a rather convincing Russian accent and executing sheer evil with an admirable degree of calm and earnestness.” Todd McCarthy proclaims that Fuhrman (as well as Bennett and Engineer) is terrific and that she "makes Esther calmly beyond reproach even when faced with monumental evidence against her, and has the requisite great evil eye.” Mick LaSalle continues in that Fuhrman "steals the show" and that she "injects nuance into this portrayal, as well as an arch spirit.” And as said by Roger Ebert, she "is not going to be convincing as a nice child for a long, long time.”

The film was the #4 film at the box office for its opening weekend, making $12.77 million total, behind G Force, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Ugly Truth respectively. As of September 9, 2009 the film has grossed a total of $53,243,687

Home media
Video. It was released on DVD & Blu-ray in the UK on November 27 by Optimum Releasing. Just Orphan was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 27, 2009 in the US byWarner Home includes Alternate Scenes and Footage, and one Alternate Ending which marketed in the DVD cover. In the Alternate Ending, showing the reverse situation of Esther and Kate in climax, but rather than implied only.

Toleransi Melayu

Perlembagaan Malaysia telah memberikan takrif yang jelas terhadap makna Orang Melayu. Perkara 160 (2) Perlembagaan Persekutuan telah menakrifkan orang Melayu sebagai seorang yang beragama Islam,bertutur Bahasa Melayu, mengamalkan Adat istiadat Melayu ,lahir sebelum hari merdeka sama ada di Persekutuan atau di Singapura atau pada hari merdeka, dia bermastautin di Persekutuan atau di Singapura.

Berbincang mengenai toleransi Melayu, sebagaimana yang dapat kita lihat, masyarakat Melayu sememangnya begitu bertoleransi dengan kaum-kaum lain di Malaysia terutama dengan kaum Cina dan India.Sejak dari zaman nenek moyang kita lagi masyarakat Cina dan India diterima secara pukal tanpa sebarang syarat.Mereka tidak dikenakan syarat sehingga boleh mengubah dan mengganggu-gugat cara hidup dan jati diri mereka. Mereka seperti seadanya sebagaimana asal, tanpa ada ubah suai walaupun sedikit. Mereka bebas berbahasa sendiri, hidup dalam kelompok sendiri, bersekolah sendiri, malah dapat mengaut kekayaan tanpa sekatan dan halangan, sehingga kekayaan melimpah ruah.

Sejarah sebegini tidak pernah berlaku di dunia Negara lain. Di negara lain, bukan sahaja mereka ditolak, malah akan dikenakan syarat-syarat yang ketat sebelum diterima menjadi warganegara. Paling ketara mereka akan diasimilasikan.Berbeza dengan negara-negara jiran seperti Thailand, Burma, Indonesia dan Filipina. Bilangan mereka yang diterima hanya di sekitar tiga – sepuluh peratus, selebihnya ditolak.Berbanding negara kita, bukan pribumi melebihi 40 peratus. Pada masa sama, kekayaan yang dikuasai dan diperolehi melebihi 70 peratus sehingga menimbul keresahan kepada pribumi. Inilah bentuk toleransi yang tidak ada tolok bandingnya yang perlu disampaikan kepada generasi akan datang.

Namun sejak kebelakangan ini toleransi melayu terhadap kaum lain dilihat sedikit terjejas, hal ini berkemungkinan timbul rasa kebimbangan orang melayu terhadap nasib anak bangsa mereka pada masa hadapan.Melihatkan kepada kedudukan kaum lain yang lebih terkehadapan terutama dari aspek pendidikan dan ekonomi,menyebabkan masyarakat melayu merasa sedikit tergugat dengan kedudukan mereka sebagai bumiputera Negara ini.Terutama kaum Cina yang mendominasi dan memonopoli sektor ekonomi di Negara ini.Jurang ekonomi yang begitu ketara antara masyarakat masyarakat melayu menimbulkan lagi rasa kebimbangan orang melayu terhadap situasi ini.

Toleransi masyarakat Melayu dengan masyarakat lain terutama dengan masyarakat Cina dan India berlangsung dalam keadaan kritikal walaupun pada luarannya kita dapat lihat keakraban yang terjalin antara mereka.Orang melayu pantang sekali jika hak-hak keistimewaan mereka diganggu-gugat sewenang-wenangnya.Buktinya, kepimpinan melayu terutama dalam UMNO dengan lantang memprotes cadangan Yang Berhormat Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim,menteri besar Selangor dengan pemberian kuota 10% UITM dibuka kepada pelajar bukan melayu.Selain itu, Orang melayu Pulau Pinang pula dengan marah menentang penghapusan Dasar Ekonomi Baru(Deb) yang dibuat oleh Datuk Seri Lim Guang Eng,Menteri Pulau Pinang.

Dengan tercetusnya isu sedemikian, merencatkan lagi toleransi antara kaum di Negara ini. Masyarakat bukan melayu.pada zahirnya melihat orang melayu seakan “tenang-tenang air di lautan” namun didalamnya penuh dengan “gelombang Tsunami yang menunggu masa untuk membadai pantai”.Kemarahan orang melayu kadang-kala ada rasionalnya,rsa terpinggir dan risau dengan kemajuan yang dicapai oleh kaum lain menyebabkan mereka mudah melontarkan emosi mereka.Namun tidak dapat dinafikan yang menyebabkan masyarakat melayu terpinggir adalah disebabkan oleh orang melayu itu sendiri sama ada pemimpin mereka ataupun sifat kemalasan orang melayu untuk berusaha lebih.Dasar-dasar yang dibuat oleh Pemimpin-pemimpin melayu seakan-akan “membunuh” orang melayu.Dasar Ekonomi Baru(DEB) tidak membawa apa-apa makna bagi orang melayu,walaupun ada antara mereka yang menentang penghapusannya.

Selain itu,dasar yang dibuat kerajaan sebagaimana yang diterangkan oleh Prof Dr.zainal Keling pemimpin tidak menjelaskan secara terperinci dan panjang lebar pada setiap dasar yang dibawanya.Contoh Wawasan 2020 hanya 15 halaman sahaja.Penerangan Islam Hadhari pula 1 halaman sahaja dan konsep 1Malaysia pula 1 perkataan sahaja.Yang lebih kesian lagi konsep 1Malaysia diserahkan sahaja kepada rakyat untuk membuat tafsiran sendiri.