After the death of their boy, a couple bring home an orphan boy - but will the fate of his former foster-parents come back to haunt this new family?
The set up is nicely observed and well thought-out, leaving an expectation that we're in for some spooky working out of the mother's repressed emotion. But even as those plot points are made, the story goes deeper into the boy's repression, allowing a further order of psychology to double down, until the pieces fit and resolution is found for all concerned.
Impressive story, but a few elements tried my patience. The over-precise CGI and heavy-handed horror tricks gave me a bit of uh-oh early on. Then the swelling violin music in the second act came over schmaltzy. Finally, the exposition in the resolution took away from the sense of mystery, so that it felt like a puzzle solved rather than a trauma survived.
The performances are all good, and the direction and editing keep up a pretty good pace.
Overall: Psychic shock to middle-class family life, ending on a Spielbergish note of coziness.
The set up is nicely observed and well thought-out, leaving an expectation that we're in for some spooky working out of the mother's repressed emotion. But even as those plot points are made, the story goes deeper into the boy's repression, allowing a further order of psychology to double down, until the pieces fit and resolution is found for all concerned.
Impressive story, but a few elements tried my patience. The over-precise CGI and heavy-handed horror tricks gave me a bit of uh-oh early on. Then the swelling violin music in the second act came over schmaltzy. Finally, the exposition in the resolution took away from the sense of mystery, so that it felt like a puzzle solved rather than a trauma survived.
The performances are all good, and the direction and editing keep up a pretty good pace.
Overall: Psychic shock to middle-class family life, ending on a Spielbergish note of coziness.