Orphans by Peter Mullan (Review)

For a film about four siblings dealing with the death of their mother, this is one messed up, twisted film. But it’s also one of the most powerful and moving pieces of film I’ve seen in the past six months, raising all sorts of questions about obligations, honor, redemption, and what it means to be a family. And it does so with a generous amount of black, dry wit.

Taking place on the night before their mother’s funeral, the movies follows three brothers and their sister and the various paths their lives take leading up the ceremony. One brother gets stabbed in a barfight, and intends to use it as a way of claiming worker’s compensation. His younger brother vows to kill the man responsible for the stabbing, and spends all night riding around with a lunatic. But the eldest brother is the most pitiful; he’s so caught up in his dead mother’s memory and his own self-righteousness that he does nothing to aid the rest of his family in their struggles.

As the night progresses, all of the siblings find their lives in various dire straits (while a tremendous storm rages through the city), until the finale at the funeral. One moment, Orphans is tragic and moving, the next hilarious, the next downright disturbing. But it weaves these disparate strands together skillfully, while never getting mushy or melodramatic. Easily one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time; its investigation of themes such as duty and family are sure to stick with you.

And if they don’t, the masturbation scene will.