Joshua (2007)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Joshua should have been a made- for-TV movie. I usually like the actors especially Vera Farmiga who just really disappointed in every scene of the movie unfortunately. The montages with non-stop piano playing grated on my nerves as did the ongoing scenes of the baby crying.It was just so bad.

I'd been waiting a while to watch Joshua, and finally got around to it last night, and while it wasn't quite what I expected, I really enjoyed it. I should mention first and fore-most, 'Joshua' is not a horror film or a thriller in the conventional sense, but rather a darkly comic drama, though it certainly borrows from the aforementioned genres. I just want to put that out there so people expecting a film along the lines of 'The Omen' won't be surprised.The film basically follows the story of two parents, their nine year old son 'Joshua' after the birth of his sister. Joshua is a child prodigy, and as the story goes along, he embarks on a devious agenda to pick off his family members one by one. This doesn't necessarily mean kill them (though it doesn't exclude murder). He shows all the signs of a budding sociopath. The gerbils in his class all died from a mysterious 'fungal disease' explains his teacher at one point, and his pet dies, after Joshua takes him for a walk. His mother is the first to make the connection, and then his father. Eventually, Joshua and his father become adversaries, the father trying to figure a way to save his family from his son, and Joshua, plotting the disintegration of what remains of his family unit.While it definitely borrows some horror and thriller conventions, the overall tone is more kin with the dark comedy found in '6 Feet Under'. I went into this expecting something totally different, but it was a pleasant change of pace for someone who watches constant horror movies as well as psychological thrillers. While it caught me off guard, I wouldn't have it any other way, and I highly recommend 'Joshua'.

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.