Orphans — Orphans (Blu Ray)
Released in 1989 Orphans was written and director by Scotsman Peter Mullen, who is also a prolific actor in his own rights with key/ memorable roles coming in the likes of psychological horror film Session Nine, and brutal Irish drama Tyrannosaur. After directing a few shorts, and few episodes of darkly hued BBC comedy drama set-in-a- hospital Cardiac Arrest, Orphans was his first feature-length film. And he certainly does a splendid job- creating a film that nicely seesaws between decidedly grim real drama, and humor that shifts from sly dark-to-gut ramblingly crude. All to create an eventful, compelling, and at times intense picture, that also wears its heart on its sleeve.
The film is set in then present-day Glasgow- and it follows a group of four siblings who have recently lost their mother. The family is made up of elder brother Thomas(Gary Lewis)- who is well-meaning, but weak. Second older brother Michael (Douglas Henshall)- a brash, at times punchy factory worker. The family's third oldest Sheila( Rosemarie Stevenson)- who is wheelchair-bound, has cerebral palsy & is often quite aggressive. And the family's youngest member John(Stephen McCole)- who is full of anger & angst about his mother passing.
The film has somewhat of episodic/odyssey feel to it- as it takes place on the evening/night before the mother's funeral, focusing in on first one then another of the siblings fairly eventful & at times bizarre night. We have moanful karaoke & bar punches up, threatening fairground encounters, moaning elderly folk & powercuts. Takeaway deliveries & peeping toms getting more than they hoped for, landlords as dartboards, broken Virgin Mary stuck back together with wax & church roofs blowing off, and more. Mullen’s script is believable & punchy in its characterization, with the twists between grim drama & dark humor balanced very well. The fairly small cast is great- going from the very impressive four leads, the to great quirky-at-times fairly bizarre side characters. The whole thing does start a little overbearingly glum & bleak- but hang in there just a short time, and you do get pulled deeper & deeper into the film- as we follow the families night time adventures.
On the extras side of things we get from 2019 Orphans Reunited- this is a great sixty-minute doc which as its title suggests reunites the key cast, but also funds Mullen talking about the films productions, issues of initial getting the film, and his short film work- all making for a most worthy watch. We get a just over half-an-hour making of from 2000, 12 minutes of deleted scenes with optional directors commentary, 17 minutes of audition tapes, 2000 directors commentary from Mullen which is nicely down-to-earth, honest and at times quite amusing. We get three of Mullen’s short films from the mid-1990s, original trailer, and image gallery.
With this release of Orphans Powerhouse continue their trend for releasing original & distinctive great British film, and it’s good to see them releasing from the wider UK- lets hope the label has some other Scottish releases planned shortly.