Talk:Orphan (2009 film)

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Plot

"losing a baby" is a little vague. I can't give you a cite, but the actual situation is that the couple, expecting their third child, go through a miscarriage, and then decide to adopt. Bustter (talk) 04:04, 7 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Brenda's ankle was broken, not her leg when Esther pushed her off the slide.

a lot of these things are out of order. like kate told john about there being no record of esther at the orphanage at the hospital AFTER daniel fell out of the tree house —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.210.225.110 (talk) 19:27, 11 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Earlier today (approximately 12:00 pm CST) and every day prior for at least the past week, the Synopsis has contained only the blurb that Warner Bros. has on the film's official site:

The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate's fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her past. Struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives, the couple decides to adopt a child. At the local orphanage, both John and Kate find themselves strangely drawn to a young girl named Esther. Almost as soon as they welcome Esther into their home, however, an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading Kate to believe that there's something wrong with Esther--this seemingly angelic little girl is not what she appears to be. Concerned for the safety of her family, Kate tries to get John and others to see past Esther's sweet facade. But her warnings go unheeded until it may be too late-for everyone.

But as of right now, someone has changed the synopsis so that it solely consists (and consists almost verbatim) of a bit of disinformation that has been circulating on various message boards--all attributed to "Carolina"--including the one for "Knox Rd" which (curiously) has recently been added as one of the external links for the article ("Knowing the Orphan spoiler is more fun than seeing the actual movie"). The post there by "Carolina" (on July 22 2009 at 8:51 pm) reads:

I hope you all know that the spoiler about her being a 33 year old woman with a disorder is a joke, right? Some random person said it as a JOKE and it has taken on a life of its own. I went to the premiere and, although there is a GIANT unsuspecting twist, it is not that one. Haha I still can’t believe you all believed that! I want to meet the kid who made that up, he deserves to have his own reality show. Now, if you want to know what the real spoiler is I’ll tell you: (Remember: This first part is all told in flashback at the end of the movie so we don’t actually see this happen in real time) Esther is a little girl who was taken away by social services after she witnesses her mother murder her father in a really gruesome way. She is put in foster care for a while until she is caught trying to re-enact the murder scene with a little girl in her foster home. She is then put into an asylum (the spoiler about the ribbons around her neck and wrists covering scars from restraints is true). So, here’s the good part: One night she escapes from the asylum and knocks on a woman’s door saying her father dropped her at the edge of the nearby river and left. The woman lets her stay the night and promises to take her to the orphanage the next morning. The next day they drive to the orphanage where the woman and the orphanage director speak (We don’t hear this conversation). Then, the family comes and decides to adopt her after their first choice mysteriously is no longer up for adoption (we later find out she killed him). So, Esther basically wreaks havoc on the mother because her mother killed her father. She and her father were very close so she holds a soft spot for John and wants him all to herself. And that’s the big secret! Still juicy, but not as ridiculous as you all thought. Hope I cleared up some stuff!

This is a complete fabrication which has been posted--each time by "Carolina"--on at least a dozen prominent sites that I've found. I'm guessing its someone affiliated with the studio or the marketing agency trying to cast doubt about other posts with the genuine spoiler (that Esther is a 30-something dwarf who used to be prostitute catering to pedophiles and now she's out to kill her new family save the father who she is trying to seduce, etc.). There have been reports, I know, that Warner Bros. is worried about the much-hyped twist ending being spoiled by Twitter, etc. If it's true that Warner Bros. or an affiliated company is behind it, it wouldn't be a new practice, of course, but it seems like such a concerted effort--one that has spilled over now to Wikipedia--that it almost deserves its own section in the entry *if* it can somehow be verified that such is the case (or maybe it could be part of a larger section about "push back" efforts undertaken by studios, etc., against spoilers in the entry for "spoiler" if any other cases can be verified).

It could, of course, also just be the work of someone (not affiliated with the film at all) with way too much time on his/her hands, but in any event I hope that Wikipedia can take steps to correct the "Synopsis" section--even if it's just to keep the official blurb in place--and prevent the disinformation from being reposted. Fauxcault (talk) 23:32, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Just an update: I'm glad to see that the Synopsis has now been edited to read:

Esther is a little girl who was taken away by social services after she witnesses her mother murder her father in a rather gruesome way. She is put in foster care for a while until she is caught trying to re-enact the murder scene with a little girl in her foster home. She is then put into an asylum. One night she escapes from the asylum and knocks on a woman’s door saying her father dropped her at the edge of the nearby river and left. The woman lets her stay the night and promises to take her to the orphanage the next morning. The next day they drive to the orphanage where the woman and the orphanage director speak. Then, a family comes and decides to adopt her after their first choice mysteriously is no longer up for adoption (later finding out she murdered him). Esther soon becomes attached to John, and sees her new mother as the enemy. Esther is not a child, she is a 33 year old woman with a disease that she cant grow physically but mentally.

I'm not sure how precise that is, but it's a lot better than both the swill that was just there a little while ago and the official blurb. Fauxcault (talk) 23:47, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

American

"cast and crew are American" -- cast, sure, but filmmakers are not allowed to import an entire crew into Canada. Besides, where would the cost savings of a Canadian shoot go if you hired and transported the crew from LA? The reference for this statement says nothing about an American crew. Perhaps "Production staff and cast are American" is what is meant here? Bustter (talk) 22:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Controversy

I added a bit about the controversy going on about this film- it seems interesting that there would be an anti-movie book on facebook, so I added that as well. The article link has all the info, but I added the facebook link as well. Tokyogirl79 (talk) 16:58, 13 July 2009 (UTC)Tokyogirl79[reply]

It is ridiculous though. The orphan 'girl' turns out not to be a girl at all. So this thing about adopted people being offended is just silly. Leave it in because its sourced, but you can find anti-anything on Facebook, so that is why someone else has removed the Facebook thing.--EchetusXe 14:05, 8 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What about this that has been added? "However no complaints have been made by the dwarf community, who seem happy to be portrayed in films as murderous psychopaths (for instance Don't Look Now and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." 72.187.69.245 (talk) 01:49, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Alma college pic/ Painting

I am told by a local newspaper that the image of Alma College is in this movie. If anyone who sees the movie can confirm or deny this that would be great. Ottawa4ever (talk) 23:46, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Its there, any objections from anyone on putting it into the artcle once someone does a plot synopsis? the movie does give the buidling alot of coeverage Ottawa4ever (talk) 16:57, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Go for it, but keep in mind such discussions would belong in a production section, not the plot summary, and of course would also require proper third-party citations. –Fierce Beaver (talk) 05:55, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Id like to find a better source to place in the article about the college. Its interesting because the collage was destroyed by arson last year (trivia) but im wondering if that had any motivation for the directors to refer to the college in the film Ottawa4ever (talk) 14:45, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Where did the plot section go?

Just wanted to point out the the entire plot section is gone, even the brief summary.Booksrule9 (talk) 23:30, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if it has anything to do with what I just posted under "Synopsis" (above). Fauxcault (talk) 23:34, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, my bad...guess I shouldn't be too hasty.Booksrule9 (talk) 23:39, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, no--I didn't mean that to sound sarcastic... I saw that it was missing, too, and I was hoping it was being edited. I only saw the changes in "History" after I posted, too. Fauxcault (talk) 23:49, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oh I see, yeah I read that wrong.Booksrule9 (talk) 23:57, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Synopsis

That's not a synopsys. That's a spoiler. I would be extremely pissed if someone spoiled the movie for me when I read this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dowboy98 (talk • contribs) 04:18, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We do not avoid content when placed in an appropriate section simply because it might contain a spoiler. Please see WP:SPOILER. Additionally, the content you replaced the summary with appears to have been a cut-and-paste copyvio, which is a no-no. However, I agree with you that the current version has moved beyond being a simple synopsis, so I have retitled the section as "Plot". –Fierce Beaver (talk) 05:04, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If it were the entire movie plot + the spoiler, I don't see the problem.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.39.71.169 (talk) 04:21, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The word "respectfully" in the following paragraph needs to be changed to "respectively" - I can't change it for some reason (I guess whoever wrote it isn't a native English speaker):

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 respectfully. Lilytaz 19:09, 2 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

well sinebot, if u didnt want to spoil the movie, why look it up on wikipedia? [[Special:Contributions/68.195.43.207|68.195.43.207 (talk) 22:45, 7 August 2009 (UTC)usagi[reply]

Production notes

Here is the link to the production notes if anyone would like to work on fleshing out this article. –Fierce Beaver (talk) 05:57, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]