Joshua (2007)

Beautiful, moving film.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Why are there so many American narratives about brilliant evil children? I'm guessing it's because a) these narratives fits perfectly into our incredibly narrow-minded ideology that everyone who behaves in an exceptionally immoral way is simply born that way, with all circumstances of upbringing and other experiences being completely irrelevant to how we turn out, and b) our enculturated stupidity and ignorance is justified by constantly associating intelligence with evil. The movie "Joshua" presents a perfect example of this kind of trite and idiotic story about a highly intelligent boy who in spite of being well cared for and affectionately nurtured wants to hurt his parents and others as much as possible for apparently no reason whatsoever. And, of course, Joshua's family is upper class, because God forbid Hollywood portray the existence of any other kind of social class in America. Nevertheless, most of the other elements of the movie--the directing, acting, cinematography, etc.--are well executed. However, providing beautiful packaging for the usual piece of trash only makes the trash all the more disappointing.

First of all, I just wanted to say that this movie was terrific. I am a fan of movies about evil children and so I knew what to expect, seeing similar movies such as "The Bad Seed" and "Children of the Corn" beforehand. I was greatly pleased when I watched this film. The main thing I liked, besides the wonderful story, was the extremely well-written characters. Character development is one of the most important things I feel any movie could have because if you don't care about the characters, you aren't going to care what happens to them so what good is watching a movie if you don't care about the characters? This movie did a wonderful job with writing the characters because I did care about them. Especially Joshua who was brilliantly portrayed by Jacob Kogan. He was perfectly cast in the role of Joshua who I think was misunderstood, and let me explain why: This film seems to try to portray Joshua as sinister, manipulative and evil and I don't think Joshua was evil at all, I just think he thought differently than other children and had habits and characteristics that were unusual compared to everyone else. He felt unloved by his parents and felt that they weren't giving him enough affection because of his new baby sister so he acted out and started doing these crazy things like collapsing on stage during the piano recital in an effort to gain their attention. In the scene where he tells the baby "no one will ever love you," I felt sorry for him because it shows that he feels unloved and unwanted by his parents so he blames the baby for it. The parents were too busy paying attention to the new baby that at times it seemed like they forgot they even had a son, so this carried on to the point where Joshua seemed to dislike his parents and wanted to be taken away from them, which is evident in the scene with the psychiatrist. I feel that he knew he would be taken away if he drew pictures filled with blood or violence and he wanted that to happen. He and his uncle had a strongbond and he felt he belonged with his uncle rather than his parents. As for the killing of the dog and his grandmother, we never actually see him kill them on screen so they could just be coincidental accidents. I like Joshua and feel that his character was similar to me in many ways including his interest in mummies and Ancient Egyptian culture, which were something I was greatly interested in when I was younger.Also, the ending of the film was the best part in my opinion. It made me almost cry both times I watched it, so you'd better have a tissue when you watch it. Overall, this film was a great movie with a wonderful story, well written characters, great acting, tons of suspense and great acting. If you haven't seen this movie, see it as soon as possible and try to see the character of Joshua from a different point-of-view than a homicidal maniac.

Well I wouldn't say this is the most thrilling film to ever be seen, nor the most horrific of horrors, but the certain cold chill that frames the whole unwinding story makes it truly intriguing. Joshua, the nine year old perfect son, that every parent could wish for passes through at the start of this film. He's a smart, obedient, piano playing, but somehow odd child. The family is happy, and well together. Once the newborn Lily arrives, you see from Joshua how much he resents her, but in some way he shows love to her. What made the first scenes right till the end very chilling and unpredictable, was the lack of speech from Jousha. This in my opinion made the movie much better. Once we begin to see how different this child is, due to what we never really understand. At school he exceeds in excellence, he plays the piano with such perfection. And as we gather he is a dark spirited child, portrayed by the other characters speech. Josha plays dark, death signing songs on the piano, noticed by the mother in law. He does not share a close proximity of a relationship with his father, and his mother never sees the interest. Their the kind of family that from a picture looks perfect, but when seen in action their flaws unwind. As the story unravels, we are lead to believe that the death of Innocent animals is due to Joshua, and the constant crying from baby Lily steers the poor mother to insanity, the father is left to leave his job and take the care. A few exceptionally chilling scenes for me and well thought out, from such a devious little boy, were the glass scene and the pram scene. When the glass breaks in the kitchen, Josha moves back, as knowing his mother will reach for him, she treads forward and of course as established on to glass, cutting a deep serge into her foot, which is the next step of her breakdown. However, we cannot say whether the child here is all to blame. One thing that really disturbed me, was when she began to smear blood up her legs and talk about her "sexy red boots" that to me really gave you that feeling that she was maybe even more "Mucked Up" that him, hence her illness. The pram scene was dramatic and we all knew what was coming, but i do believe that Joshua never intended to hurt Lily, he didn't exactly hurry to push her down a flight of stairs, he merely strolled outside and he knew that the mother in law was running behind, and of course i do think he knew the father was watching. I think that this was his intentional plan, to have the people watch, until he finally targeted the opinionated mother in law, and she is next into the coffin. What seemed obscene to me, was how little feeling the characters showed, when his mother was pushed (or so we assume) the father, did not show any emotion he merely clung to Lily and although we could see his hurt he did no show any signs of anger. However once with Joshua i saw the true side of his father that Joshua had been waiting to release. "I know what your doing Joshua, Im on to you," to me really made it seem as though they were battling men, not a nine year old son with his mental driving father. Over the film so many varied thrills happen, some leading to nothing and others leading to tragic breakdowns. The abuse scene with Joshua and his father really shocked me, i saw his fathers anger but he really went for it, with Joshua's evil mimics, shown several times over the film (e.g. when the dog died, he mimicked his fathers sadness) and when he was climbing and he repeated his father, he knew just how to push his buttons. Once the father had lost his temper what really gave it that final blow for me was the small sly smile that formed on Joshua's lips, he seemed happy, he had finally managed to make his family fall apart, and his father to reveal everything. This was a very well thought film, with similar story lines of older films, however this one had s more certain chill, less horror and more, dark edge. The final points to assume, were the way that Lily was never harmed, she in the viewers eyes was the reason for Joshua's dislike, however he never hurt her, or harmed her. Also the relationship with his uncle was mysterious and odd, he loved his uncle a lot more that he you saw with his parents, they shared a bond for music, both piano genius', whereas his dad was a pop music headphone listening kinda guy. At the end when Joshua sung a song as he and his uncle played a song, he said "this feels right doesn't it? how it should have been?" you get the feeling hes referring to it should be him as his father. As earlier he stated when his was in room to his dad, "do you ever feel weird about me?" we sense that Joshua did towards him, but never towards his uncle. A dark bond i never assumed to happen, but a very wicked ending with everything out of place.Overall a good film, watch if your mature enough to understand the true depth of this film, and see Joshua as he begins to dismantle his family.

I did not enjoy the film, Joshua, at all. Perhaps it is because I saw another, much better similar film titled Orphan 2 days prior but perhaps it's really just because this film was not very good. I am going with the ladder. Sure, the plot of an evil child is not exactly original but that doesn't mean the film could not succeed. It could have been suspenseful and entertaining and chilling but instead it was slow building, boring, uneventful and really didn't leave me thinking anything more than 'that wasn't very good' when it was all over.At the end, Joshua's motivations are revealed. I won't give that away but the reality is that he didn't really accomplish his goals since despite Vera Farmiga as his mother, Abby, disappearing about 3/4th through the movie, all arrows point to her returning home soon. She was committed to a mental institution because she was losing her mind but then Joshua's Father/Her husband was accused of tampering with her medication which tells the audience that the institution realized that she was indeed not mentally ill but rather was being dosed medically. So.. shouldn't she be coming home soon? Won't Joshua have failed? Won't his Mother be living with him and his sister and possibly his Father soon? I question the Father since his future is left open ended.At the end of the day, I didn't care about the characters. The evil demon child Joshua wasn't really scary. The storyline moved slowly and when it picked up it was still boring. Suspense fell flat every single time. When it was over I couldn't believe I had sat through the whole thing. 4/10 just because the acting was good from the parents especially Vera Farmiga as the Mother but if you want to see a movie about an evil 'child' go see Orphan. Now that's a movie that took an unoriginal concept and created a brilliant movie.