Joshua | Review

Whenever there is a new member added to the family, it is not only the family dog who feels a decrease in parental affection, sometimes older siblings feel slightly left out in the cold. Belonging to the sub-genre family of films usually in a horror or occult format, this tale about the ‘bad seed’ reeking havoc at home is a rare deviation from those god awful movies. What is peculiar with Joshua is that the filmmaker designs it so that the chuckle is one part of the suspense cocktail and with comparable stylistic and mood references to such films as Birth, The Shinning and Rosemary’s Baby, George Ratliff delivers a smartly conceived, good looking, witty revenge flick that is wisely disguised as a contemporary family drama.

Co-scripted by Ratliff and David Gilbert, this peers into a young Manhattanite couple’s renewed transition into parenthood with the birth of a baby girl – an arrival that gradually turns sour thanks to the baby’s irregular chronic crying and an awkward set of occurrences that go undetected. Despite the lack of affinity with his son, Sam Rockwell plays a caring father who eventually must invest himself further into the maintenance of his family unit while the wife (fussy character played by Vera Farmiga) suffers from a serious case of postpartum depression. When the men of the family have a heart to heart – this turning-point scene foreshadows that this son’s behavior is noticeably strange. Experienced moviegoers won’t budge at the boy’s neatly parted haircut and an obsession over playing the piano as key signifiers for possible trouble at the residence – but a tracking shot of empty hamster cages, odd diner table observations and non-routine piano recitals add to both the humor and the creepiness of the child character and the disposition of the film.

Noteworthy parallels to Ratliff’s last feature Hell House apparently are the religious facets, here Farmiga’s character decisively puts religion back in its box, this is just one of the many juicy dialogue moments that reveal that the characters aren’t oblivious nimrods that you’d expect from such fare. After the theatrics of a mother in distress, where the film takes on a more exciting tone is when the two men left standing begin a fight to see who’ll be the winner in the end and as a result, that relationship either dissolves or evolves depending if you are from the vantage point of the adult or child.

Ratliff offers a balance of light and dark gradients – this ultimately swings the movie back and forth between the safety net of the day and the uncertainty of the night. DOP Benoit Debie flourishes in detailing the different strength and weakness vantage points of the characters and the film’s piano score reminds of the traces found in The Shinning.

Viewers will indulge in Rockwell’s character’s downgrade in mental sanity and the script remains solid because the characters go overboard only within a reasonable range. This atmospheric tale of a family in peril will make viewers collectively laugh out during a dozen or so sequences and the film’s final freeze frame neatly ties a bow on a mindless pleasure worth the bait.

January 22nd, 2007. Sundance Film Festival

Rating 3 stars