Director: George Ratliff
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, Michael McKean, Jacob Kogan

- Reviewed by Jennifer

Joshua is bad. He's a bad boy and a bad movie, and 106 minutes is far too long to spend with him. The fact that he's evil, calculating, and eccentric would almost be excusable, if he weren't so damn boring.

Joshua's parents, Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby (Vera Farmiga), are over the moon when their second child is born. Lilly is calm and cuddly, and Abby isn't half as depressed as she was when Joshua was a baby. He cried all day every day, to the point where Abby was practically insane, but things are going to be different this time. Joshua has grown into a mature, self-contained piano prodigy. He's talented for his age, but he's no Liberace—we're talking deliberate, heavy-handed keystrokes that seem to be played on your last nerve. It's annoying as anything, but there's no reason to think he's going to send their lives directly down the toilet. There is, however, good reason to listen to the little voice in your head that tells you to turn the movie off and bring the infernal clanging to an end.

As if the piano weren't bad enough, the crying begins when Lilly is about 19 days old. It seems to come from nowhere, and before you know it, Abby is just as frazzled and crazy as she was when Joshua was a baby. She wasn't exactly pleasant before this happened (sort of a smack-when-you-chew, put-your-foot-on-the-table, pump-your-breasts-in-mixed-company kind of girl), but now she's completely unhinged, stumbling around with perpetual bed hair, looking kind of stinky, and talking like a drunk. Brad does his best to be supportive, but it seems there's no saving the situation.

After Abby winds up on crutches (don't even ask), Brad's mother (Celia West) comes to help out. She's a devout Christian, and Abby's not too happy to see her. No need to worry—Grandma will be dead soon... as will the family dog. And if you're getting tired of looking at Abby's haystack hair, you're in luck—she'll be hauled off to the looney bin in short order. The movie's title tells you that Joshua is to blame, but it's not clear what his problem is. He has the power to ruin lives just by whispering, "no one will ever love you," but what's his deal? Is he the devil's own? Does he have evil powers? Why is he doing this? Do I care?

For what it's worth, I wish he would have disposed of his entire family on his own time.

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