Child 44

Child 44, the latest film from director Daniel Espinosa is a complete and utter mess of a film. The first and second acts are a complete bore and the film only has something to say near the end. It's a dark, ugly film and I don't mean that tonally. This is a hard film to watch and it wasted a magnificent performance by a man that is quickly proving to be the best actor acting today. All in all I give Child 44 a bucket and a half of Killer Korn.













The trailer for this movie is gripping and I truly couldn't wait to see the film. It seemed liked the movie would jump off the screen and find a place in your mind where it would hang out and make you think about it for weeks to come. I love those kinds of movies, films like Gone Baby, Gone, Adore, or Interstellar, those films stuck with me long after I'd seen them. I foolishly thought, basing my opinion on the trailer that Child 44 would do the same. It was a bait and switch and I couldn't have been more wrong. Daniel Espinosa, the director behind this mess brought us the Denzel Washington 2012 vehicle Safe House which wasn't a film I was wild about. It had some good moments but overall it fell flat. I'm guessing Safe House is the one reason Child 44 pulled in the on screen talent that it did. Tom Hardy was amazing in his portrayal of Leo Dimidov. Too bad is was a performance wasted on this drivel. The drivel also starred Noomi Rapace as Leo's wife Raisa, Jason Clark, Joel Kinnaman, Fares Fares, Paddy Considine, Vincent Cassel, and Gary Oldman. That is a pretty impressive cast to have in such a pretty awful film.

There are far too many story lines to follow here and that led to the damming confusion that plagued Child 44. If you've see the trailer the film looks like a can't miss (and if you have check out the trailer below). The trailer looks like Child 44 centers around a serial killer of Russian children and even the title of the film suggests that but what you get is a long, slow melodrama of a brainwashed people and the government organization that tries to keep everyone in line. In the middle of that government is a militarized known as the MGB and if someone is accused by someone else of being a traitor then the MGB roots that person out, shoots them full of drugs in order to get the names of the co-conspiritors. Then they kill that person. There is a power struggle between Leo and Joel Kinnaman's character Vasili who is in cahoots with their supervisor, Vincent Cassel's Kuzmin to destroy Leo. Leo's wife Raisa has been named as a traitor and they demand Leo denounce her knowing he would refuse to, they get reassigned to a small town far away from Moscow and they should be happy they weren't shot to death.

You have to get through that madness before you get to Leo and Raisa trying to find the killer of children. Once that storyline get's going then the movie is worth watching, and if you haven't left the theater yet you're in for a treat. Sadly the last act lasts for maybe twenty minutes at the most. The movie is based on a novel written by Tom Rob Smith and the screenplay is penned by Richard Price. The book I am quiet certain in this case is far better than the movie. The only redeeming thing about Child 44 (outside of Tom Hardy's performance) is the score by Jon Ekstrand. There are profound moments of tenderness sprinkled amongst a powerful and dramatic score but that's not enough to buy a ticket to see this film. Skip Child 44, enjoy the trailer instead (which far outclasses the movie), and I'll see you at the theater