Joshua

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Joshua is a well-crafted thriller in that reliable Evil Kid subgenre. It takes its time; all its characters are sharply drawn; and it builds palpable amounts of suspense. It's also highly unenjoyable to watch. As well done as it is, I couldn't help but desperately want to be somewhere else during its entire running time.

The story concerns the Cairns, an upper-crust Manhattan family that consists of husband Brad (Sam Rockwell), wife Abby (Vera Farmiga, from The Departed), and their super-smart son Joshua (Jacob Kogan). As the story begins, they've just welcomed into the family a new baby girl, Lily. Joshua doesn't seem to appreciate her as much as his parents do.

The thing is, we know the kid is an evil little monster who's up to something. And we know since he's way smarter than everybody else, he will eventually reach his goal. The only secret is what that eventual goal is, but since we know it's bound to include a lot of unpleasantness for everybody, I wasn't particularly excited about it.

Yes, the film builds a sense of dread quite well. But this isn't "fun" dread, in which you get excited about it and want the film to really scare you. It's just unpleasantness. Take Farmiga's character. She's a woman who was manically depressed when Joshua was born, and is now lapsing back into it with the new baby. At first we think Joshua and his general evilness is behind her depression, but he's not; it runs in her family and she's been battling it a long time. I can applaud the movie for this twist on the theme, and I can applaud Farmiga for a really effective, unhinged performance. But her character is, all in all, a pretty terrible mother. So we don't like her. And she can be really annoying, but because she's depressed, we feel sorry for her. Having these conflicted feelings is at no point entertaining.

Joshua, likewise, is played very well by newcomer Kogan. He's got the false innocence and subtle taunting down perfectly. It's an extremely effective performance, and by that I mean we spend the whole movie wanting to punch the little kid in the face (a feeling which one of the other characters begins to acquire as well). But he's become such a cliche that watching the movie becomes downright dutiful. We should've gotten our fill of the Evil Kid fourteen years ago with The Good Son. Then his cousin the Creepy Kid came into favor with The Sixth Sense and The Ring movies. Then we're back to the Evil Kid in The Omen (and for that matter, the ghosts in Dark Water and The Grudge and most other recent horror movies). My point is, it's been played out. Very played out.