VIDEO DISCOVERY : Orphans Get a Family, For Better or for Worse

The first thing you notice about the characters and goings-on in “Orphans” is that they are not necessarily grounded in reality. Based on a stage play by Lyle Kessler, the film is a bit stagy and the players a bit stilted. But that’s part of the fun of this quirky look at human nature.

Albert Finney creates another of his mesmerizing characters--Harold, a blustery, full-of-himself Chicago gangster who is abducted by a crazed third-rate thief and held in the dilapidated house the thief shares with his younger, backward brother. Harold uses his extraordinary gift of gab to get himself freed, then hangs around, taking over the household and becoming the father figure. The orphans now have a family, for better or worse.

Both Matthew Modine and Gary Anderson go way out there as the orphan brothers and lend a nervous fatalism to the film. But it’s Finney’s show: With his Midwestern gangster slang and alcohol-tainted good manners, he’s parodying both American films and American values, uproariously.

“Orphans” (1987), directed by Alan J. Pakula. 120 minutes. Rated R.

ANOTHER TAPE:

“The Killing” (1956), directed by Stanley Kubrick. 83 minutes. No rating. A band of very serious thugs plan the biggest score of their careers. An urgent, no-nonsense, unrelenting film by the man who went on to direct “Dr. Strangelove,” “2001” and “A Clockwork Orange.”