Cast: Douglas Henshall, Gary Lewis, Stephen McCole, Frank Gallagher, Alex Norton, Rosemarie Stevenson
Director: Peter Mullan
Producer: Frances Higson
Screenplay: Peter Mullan
Cinematography: Grant Cameron
Music: Craig Armstrong
U.S. Distributor: The Shooting Gallery
In English with subtitles
Orphans is a strange, unconventional motion picture that treads an uncertain path between dark drama and even darker comedy. Director Peter Mullan, in his feature debut, attempts with limited success to wed the stark naturalism of Ken Loach with the surrealism of Danny Boyle. The result is a mixed bag. There are times when Orphans is stirring and effective. Unfortunately, the movie lacks consistency, resulting in awkward transitions and scenes that feel forced and staged.
When Orphans begins, four adult children are gathered around the casket of their recently deceased mother. They have different personalities and react individually to their bereavement. Thomas (Gary Lewis), the eldest, is a devout Catholic who has agreed to keep an all-night vigil by the coffin's side in preparation for the funeral. Michael (Douglas Henshall), normally a level-headed person, becomes involved in a pub brawl and is stabbed. He spends the rest of the night wandering around Glasgow, slowly leaking blood as he goes through a series of bizarre misadventures. John (Stephen McCole), who has a hot temper, vows to kill his brother's assailant. To that end, he hooks up with a thug (Frank Gallagher) who provides him with a gun and an opportunity to fuel a spree of mayhem. Finally, there's Sheila (Rosemarie Stevenson), a girl who is confined to her motorized wheelchair by a debilitating disease. Unwilling to spend the night in a gloomy church with her brother and dead mother, she ventures out onto the streets, where her wheelchair breaks down and she is given aid by a group of children who come upon her.
The title Orphans not only refers to the characters in a literal sense - they have lost both mother and father - but in a spiritual one, as well. In one way or another, these people are disconnected from the community around them. Each of them seeks a kind of isolation. The steering forces in their lives are weak and eroding. By presenting the stories of four different individuals, Mullan uses Orphans as a microcosm to illustrate his point about how modern society has become dissociated from the old guard principles of religion, hard work, and family. Today's generation is orphaned from what their predecessors deemed to be important.
As an actor, Mullan has worked with both Ken Loach (Riff Raff and the title role in My Name Is Joe) and Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave and Trainspotting), and Orphans shows elements of both directors' approaches. The problem is that Loach and Boyle are radically different filmmakers, and Mullan's attempts to fuse elements of their styles doesn't always work. At its best, Orphans is a powerful examination of grief. At its worst, it makes Martin Scorsese's After Hours seem like a pleasant nighttime sojourn.
Despite being in English, the film is subtitled, presumably to aid the audience in coping with the heavy accents and unfamiliar idioms. Orphans is not the first movie to do this - Loach's Riff Raff and My Name Is Joe employed the same device. (Interestingly, Mullan has been involved in all three movies to use this approach.)
Mullan has pulled together a fine group of core actors. The most difficult performance belongs to Rosemarie Stevenson, whose Sheila is the most sympathetic character. Douglas Henshall plays Michael almost as a ghost - a barely corporeal presence who drifts from one scene to another, gradually growing paler and weaker as blood loss diminishes him (he won't go to the hospital because he wants to show up at work the next day, pretend to be injured on the job, and collect worker's compensation). Stephen McCole portrays John as a hothead who is ultimately frightened by the finality of violence. And Gary Lewis (Shanks in My Name Is Joe) presents a man who is more concerned about the dead than the living.
When he goes for drama, Mullan often hits the mark. Orphans contains some memorable scenes. In one, we feel Sheila's helplessness as she is stranded alone and immobile in the middle of a Glasgow street. In another, when Michael pays an unexpected nocturnal visit to his children (with whom he no longer lives), we sense his desperation as he recognizes that he is gradually fading from their lives. And the resolution to John's quest for blood takes a realistic and visceral turn that refutes the notion of violence as the clean, perfect means of revenge.
However, as deft as Mullan's touch may be in moments like these, he is unable to fully integrate the surrealistic elements into the overall tapestry. The film contains strong elements of black comedy, but the humor and irony are so hard-edged that no one will be laughing. There's a scene in which a freak storm blows the roof of the church off. Michael becomes a victim of the nastiest pub keeper in Scotland, and John has a messy encounter with a masturbator. These events almost seem to belong in a different motion picture. Mullan deserves credit for trying something unusual - it's just that, in this case, his reach has exceeded his grasp. Orphans is an interesting film with some important things to say, but the two halves of its split personality war with each other rather than gelling.
© 2000 James Berardinelli