Orphans

The characters are kept alive and unpredictable through the careful counterbalancing of their separate acting styles.

Orphans is a good play about behavior that has been turned into a mediocre movie about nothing much at all. That is not intended as a criticism of the filmmakers, but simply as an observation about the nature of the material.

It's very convincingly acted and well directed with a fine sense of claustrophobia by Alan J. Pakula. All quite sad, basically sentimental but ultimately depressing.

Great performances and characters feel a bit imprisoned by the walls of the film frame.