Review of Joshua (2007) by Kyle S — 20 Jan 2008

After watching the movie, Joshua, purposely titled as the name of the main character played by Jacob Kogan, I felt an understanding for him. This low budget film was released in limited theaters on July 6, 2007. Although this film is very creepy and chilling, I find that creepy little kids are somewhat easy to understand even behind their mysterious side of the abyss as long as their intentions are revealed in a movie.

This story is a typical tale of a upperclass family struggling to keep their family together inspite of hidden problems that they can't solve. Joshua, an intelligent unconventional 9 yr old kid who longs to be understood by his parents. Even with his bizarre (keep to himself) behavior, He still strives to get notice by he's parents. When Lily Cairn is newly added to the family, Joshua is getting unnoticed. Eerie coincidences and tragic events starts happening, and the family unity starts to crumble.

The setting takes place in Brooklyn and mostly in the Cairn's apartment loft. Hint that Brooklyn is a crowded place to be in. Their apartment home turned into a dark claustrophobic place to be in. After watching it, I've never been creeped out by empty dark spaces in an apartments.

Because of the editing and cinematography, I have my fear of dark corners and empty close spaces. In the beginning of the film it was realy bright emphasizing a happy moment in the movie. Towards the end it is emmensly dark in every corner and empty...adding to the great suspense it has that made this a great psycological film.

The acting was great. Sam Rockwell played Brad Cairn, as a bussinessman/father/husband. He did very well being calm, cool, and collective while jugling all he's duties. Towards the end he ends up loosing all his good qualities. Vera Farmiga did a great job. She played Abby Cairn, who is a mom and wife. In the begginning she is a very happy mom when she gives birth to lily. Towards the end her inner problems starts to bring her down emotionally. Vera is very talented and seeing her suffer with post pardum depression was very believable. She is a great actress with great range. Jacob did a pretty good job, one of the kid who pulled off every chilling scene. He wasn't cliche as a creepy kid in scary movies. He was pretty believable and interacted with his two parent actors very well. He was pretty good for he's first role and he was very talented in music.

All-in-all, it's well crafted Hitchcockian tale that well creep you out psychologically. It had a great storyline and script that will keep you glued to the screen until the very surprising ending. It's not a film that everyone will like. If you don't like slow paced movies and your impatient, then this is not for you. If you like a psychological film that has a good script and it's well acted, then this film is for you.