Irish Film Institute -JOSHUA

JOSHUA

Director: George Ratliff

U.S.A.| 2007. COLOUR. 35MM. DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO. 105 MIN.


A brilliant house-of-horror tale directed with Hitchcockian flair, George Ratliff ‘s Sundance hit is the class act of 2007. Joshua plays the piano rather than the horn, but like his Biblical namesake the 9-year-old has the power to make things come tumbling down. This gifted and precocious kid leads a loving and enriched life with his yuppie parents among the upper echelons of Manhattan. But everything suddenly goes haywire as the family starts to fall apart. Through an ever-darkening lens, perspectives are elegantly turned as relationship dynamics become more cynical. Layered with smart red herrings, enlivened by rich and misleading visual textures and narrative misdirection, the film ensures you’ll never quite know what is behind the gradual and unsparing descent into nightmare of the picture-perfect Cairn family. Psychologically astute and superbly written, Ratliff ‘s film also benefits enormously from Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga’s outstanding performances as Joshua’s puzzled parents.

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