Joshua is a sort of hard movie to categorize.  It isn't gory, it isn't scary...it's more of a suspense drama, taking the often-used plot of the evil child - think The Omen - and using your familiarity with that storyline against you.  It isn't a great film, I'm not even sure it is a very good one, but its enjoyable and the suspense works, so it is a useful diversion if nothing else.

Sam Rockwell plays Brad.  He and his wife Abby (Vera Farmiga) have just had their second child, a little girl.  Brad is a successful New York City investment banker-type, and his wife stays home with the kids: their new baby and 9-year-old Joshua (Jacob Kogan).  With help from Brad's parents, and Abby's brother Ned (Dallas Roberts), we watch as Abby tries to care for this newborn and overcome her fears of post-partum depression, which apparently she suffered from after Joshua was born.  As the newborn begins to cry frequently, and Abby can barely get any sleep, her depression turns to occasional hallucination.  Yet around every corner, near every problem, lurks Joshua.  Jacob Kogan plays Joshua in a wonderfully creepy fashion, not moving his arms when he walks (ala Joe Friday), droning on in a monotone voice both adult and childlike, an unemotional stare, a blank expression...he is completely unsettling, especially to the audience who has grown to expect head-spinning and vomiting (Joshua does throw up in on early scene, stopping in mid-spasm to apologize).

The family starts to disintegrate.  Brad's business is suffering, nobody is sleeping well, Brad's mother wants Joshua baptized which Jewish Abby finds offensive, the apartment upstairs in a constant source of construction racket...and as each new crisis is reached we are left to decide if Joshua is somehow involved, or fully responsible...or have we just been trained to believe so?  In once scene, the child suddenly stops crying, and immediately Joshua is seen with a full garbage bag which he wants to take outside.  His parents are merely curious, but the audience's first question is inevitably "did he stuff the baby in there?"  Are Joshua's eccentricities a result of his advanced intelligence for his age, or his talent as a young pianist, or typical sibling rivalry?  Or more?

The only problem I had with the movie was self-inflicted: I can't watch Sam Rockwell in a film now without picturing him as Chuck Barris from "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind."  If you don't suffer from that problem, I think you might enjoy a break from the multitude of sequels this summer by seeing Joshua.  If you miss it now, at least catch it on DVD.  The creepy moments make it worth your while.  Plus, as one local review put it, if nothing else it might convince you not to have any more kids.