The arrival of a newborn girl causes the gradual disintegration of the Cairn family; particularly for 9-year-old Joshua (Kogan), an eccentric boy whose proper upbringing and refined tastes both take a sinister turn.
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Director:
Peter Cornwell
Stars:
Virginia Madsen,
Kyle Gallner,
Elias Koteas
A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building. Adding further drama to their plight, they are targeted by the ghost of former resident.
Director:
Walter Salles
Stars:
Jennifer Connelly,
John C. Reilly,
Tim Roth
The Cairn's life seems to be a harmonic family: The father Brad works as a stockbroker, his wife Abby takes care of their common new-born daughter Lily, and the 9-year-old Joshua is high-talented. But the appearances are deceptive. Joshua becomes gradual jealously, that his parents give the baby more attention than him. Therefore he begins to terrorize his family. Written by
RSaVLSG
The role of Joshua's young sibling was played by the real-life newborn sibling of Jacob Kogan. See more »
Goofs
When Brad tries to seduce Abby in their bedroom, the peak meter of the baby monitor indicates that Lily is still screaming on top of her lungs, when she is actually sleeping peacefully. See more »
"Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-Flat Major, Op. 26 - Marcia Funebre (Sulla Morte d'un Eroe)"
Written by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Nico Muhly See more »
"Cruel children, crying babies, All grow up as geese and gabies, Hated, as their age increases, By their nephews and their nieces." Robert Louis Stevenson
If you're thinking of starting a family, don't see Joshua. If you think your stockbroker spouse is a stable breadwinner capable of providing you a view of Central Park, don't see Joshua. If you think all your children will be lovable, don't see Joshua.
However, if you want the bejesus scared out of you by a kid so bright he could skip two grades and play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 at recess, director George Ratliff, whose Hell House could have entitled this expert psychological thriller, has fashioned a hell of a cautionary tale about appearances and reality, unlovable kids and their clueless parents. The slow disintegration of an upper-middle class family is so carefully drawn that the first third of the film seems like a walk in the park with a few scrapes from some errant shrubbery. When, however, nine-year old Joshua Cairn (Jacob Kogan) begins missing his parents' affection, displaced to his crybaby newborn sister, strange but not too strange things happen, not easily ascribable to him.
As in most successful thrillers involving miscreant kids, even to the end is a doubt that they could be the source of the growing terror. Although comparisons to The Bad Seed and Rosemary's Baby seem fair, Kogan bears a strong resemblance to Buddy Swan, who played the young Charles Foster Kane with chilling deadpan. Kane's lifelong hang up over being separated from his family is an appropriate allusion to clarify the psychological ramifications in this film.
Although I was quite pleased with the slow exposition, because I think things unravel slowly in privileged families, the payoff ending came too quickly and without the supernatural underpinnings the buildup seemed to promise.
"Modern children were considerably less innocent than parents and the larger society supposed . . . ." David Elkind, Child Psychologist
44 of 62 people found this review helpful.
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"Cruel children, crying babies, All grow up as geese and gabies, Hated, as their age increases, By their nephews and their nieces." Robert Louis Stevenson
If you're thinking of starting a family, don't see Joshua. If you think your stockbroker spouse is a stable breadwinner capable of providing you a view of Central Park, don't see Joshua. If you think all your children will be lovable, don't see Joshua.
However, if you want the bejesus scared out of you by a kid so bright he could skip two grades and play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 at recess, director George Ratliff, whose Hell House could have entitled this expert psychological thriller, has fashioned a hell of a cautionary tale about appearances and reality, unlovable kids and their clueless parents. The slow disintegration of an upper-middle class family is so carefully drawn that the first third of the film seems like a walk in the park with a few scrapes from some errant shrubbery. When, however, nine-year old Joshua Cairn (Jacob Kogan) begins missing his parents' affection, displaced to his crybaby newborn sister, strange but not too strange things happen, not easily ascribable to him.
As in most successful thrillers involving miscreant kids, even to the end is a doubt that they could be the source of the growing terror. Although comparisons to The Bad Seed and Rosemary's Baby seem fair, Kogan bears a strong resemblance to Buddy Swan, who played the young Charles Foster Kane with chilling deadpan. Kane's lifelong hang up over being separated from his family is an appropriate allusion to clarify the psychological ramifications in this film.
Although I was quite pleased with the slow exposition, because I think things unravel slowly in privileged families, the payoff ending came too quickly and without the supernatural underpinnings the buildup seemed to promise.
"Modern children were considerably less innocent than parents and the larger society supposed . . . ." David Elkind, Child Psychologist