Written by Lyle Kessler, based on his 1983 play of the same name, the film follows two orphaned brothers (Matthew Modine and Kevin Anderson) as they navigate life on their own.

Treat (Matthew Modine) and Phillip (Kevin Anderson) are two brothers living alone in a rundown row house in Newark, New Jersey.

Treat, the elder, is a violent pickpocket who spends the day robbing people in order to provide for himself and Phillip.

As Harold helps Phillip overcome his agoraphobia (Treat has him under the influence that he will die upon contact with the outside world), tensions begin to run high in the household.

[1]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two and a half stars out of four and had this to say: Orphans is a good play about behavior that has been turned into a mediocre movie about nothing much at all.