Child 44 (C+ or 2/4 stars)
'Child 44' (produced by Ridley Scott & directed by Daniel Espinosa, Safe House) is a politically-charged, if also slowwwburn thriller set in Soviet Russia in 1953. The main plot concerns Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), a one-time orphan who grew up to work as a secret police agent, hunting for enemies of the state. When several children's bodies are discovered near some train tracks (including the young son of one of Leo's colleagues), they're all written-off as "train accidents". Why train accidents? Because a serial child murderer on the loose in the Soviets' "perfect", victorious post-WWII society would look bad.
When Leo's wife, schoolteacher Raisa (Noomi Rapace), is accused of being a spy, Leo loses his status/power when he refuses to denounce her. They are both spared from death (she's apparently pregnant), but exiled to Volsk, a ghastly industrial outpost town. There, more children are conspicuously found dead, & Leo starts working with the initially not-so-friendly Gen. Nesterov (Gary Oldman) to smoke-out this killer who preys on young boys. Unfortunately, their open investigation/quest for justice threatens a massive political cover-up enforced by Leo's chief rival, the psychopathic Vasili (Joel Kinnaman, so good in this year's Run All Night), who insists that "There is no crime in Paradise". And Paradise is supposed to be the new Soviet Union. Hard-boiled drama ensues.
'Child 44' is a mixed bag of stellar performances & intriguing ideas, blended with tonal misfires, plot incoherence, & a bloated running time. It's good that I respect & admire Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, & Gary Oldman as much as I do, because without their intensity & astute thespian skills, I may have even walked out of this film. It is quite bleak. The color palette is muted with depressing greys & browns. There is brutal violence at play. There's squalor in the streets. There's mud. There's blood. There are shootings & stabbings. There are women being slapped. There are 'good guys' being killed left & right. There is suicide. There is self-torture (by the serial killer; his reasoning for the self-torture is a doozy). There are intense injections. There are recurring images of slaughtered children. REALLY ... it's all a bit much.
'Child 44' is also a thriller (more or less) with few 'thrills'. Sure, there's a loud argument or two. There's a fight scene or two. And I was tense throughout a few sequences. But the whole ordeal is very dreary, serious and, well, sad. This is not a movie you'll want to pop-in to your DVD and watch over & over again. Furthermore, this film has a hard time trying to hone-in on what it wants to be. What's it all about? Well. There's a bit about orphans/adoption. There's a little Stalinist paranoia in there (a nation on the cusp of great change). There's corruption among the ranks. There's a bit about German concentration camps and a Russia without shame. There's a lot of marital anxiety concerning Leo/Raisa (she lies to him several times). And then there's the serial killer subplot which takes up a good portion of the running time, but probably should have been the main focal point. Too many of the other subplots get shortchanged/left dangling without proper closure.
Alright, alright, enough negativity. Tom Hardy is a wonderful & captivating actor. His brooding, gorilla-like screen presence, mixed with some surprising vulnerability, & a solid Russian accent kept me glued to the screen as I waited for the quality of the rest of the film to catch-up to him. Noomi Rapace (who also happens to be Hardy’s co-star from last year's The Drop - a much better film), is similarly interesting to watch. And Gary Oldman is quite good in a too-small, nearly inconsequential role. I also must praise Oliver Wood's moody, foreboding cinematography, the grim period locales/sets, & a tense musical score by Jon Ekstrand. 'Child 44' gets just enough "right" to warrant a tepid recommendation from me, but there are problems abounding. This is a story of two decent, if flawed people who are forced to endure a tyrannical society at a brutal time in history. I liked parts of 'Child 44' very much, but its whole is nowhere near as good as its parts. This is a cold, grim, intermittently tense motion picture that fails to be as consistently entertaining as it should have been.
When Leo's wife, schoolteacher Raisa (Noomi Rapace), is accused of being a spy, Leo loses his status/power when he refuses to denounce her. They are both spared from death (she's apparently pregnant), but exiled to Volsk, a ghastly industrial outpost town. There, more children are conspicuously found dead, & Leo starts working with the initially not-so-friendly Gen. Nesterov (Gary Oldman) to smoke-out this killer who preys on young boys. Unfortunately, their open investigation/quest for justice threatens a massive political cover-up enforced by Leo's chief rival, the psychopathic Vasili (Joel Kinnaman, so good in this year's Run All Night), who insists that "There is no crime in Paradise". And Paradise is supposed to be the new Soviet Union. Hard-boiled drama ensues.
'Child 44' is a mixed bag of stellar performances & intriguing ideas, blended with tonal misfires, plot incoherence, & a bloated running time. It's good that I respect & admire Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, & Gary Oldman as much as I do, because without their intensity & astute thespian skills, I may have even walked out of this film. It is quite bleak. The color palette is muted with depressing greys & browns. There is brutal violence at play. There's squalor in the streets. There's mud. There's blood. There are shootings & stabbings. There are women being slapped. There are 'good guys' being killed left & right. There is suicide. There is self-torture (by the serial killer; his reasoning for the self-torture is a doozy). There are intense injections. There are recurring images of slaughtered children. REALLY ... it's all a bit much.
'Child 44' is also a thriller (more or less) with few 'thrills'. Sure, there's a loud argument or two. There's a fight scene or two. And I was tense throughout a few sequences. But the whole ordeal is very dreary, serious and, well, sad. This is not a movie you'll want to pop-in to your DVD and watch over & over again. Furthermore, this film has a hard time trying to hone-in on what it wants to be. What's it all about? Well. There's a bit about orphans/adoption. There's a little Stalinist paranoia in there (a nation on the cusp of great change). There's corruption among the ranks. There's a bit about German concentration camps and a Russia without shame. There's a lot of marital anxiety concerning Leo/Raisa (she lies to him several times). And then there's the serial killer subplot which takes up a good portion of the running time, but probably should have been the main focal point. Too many of the other subplots get shortchanged/left dangling without proper closure.
Alright, alright, enough negativity. Tom Hardy is a wonderful & captivating actor. His brooding, gorilla-like screen presence, mixed with some surprising vulnerability, & a solid Russian accent kept me glued to the screen as I waited for the quality of the rest of the film to catch-up to him. Noomi Rapace (who also happens to be Hardy’s co-star from last year's The Drop - a much better film), is similarly interesting to watch. And Gary Oldman is quite good in a too-small, nearly inconsequential role. I also must praise Oliver Wood's moody, foreboding cinematography, the grim period locales/sets, & a tense musical score by Jon Ekstrand. 'Child 44' gets just enough "right" to warrant a tepid recommendation from me, but there are problems abounding. This is a story of two decent, if flawed people who are forced to endure a tyrannical society at a brutal time in history. I liked parts of 'Child 44' very much, but its whole is nowhere near as good as its parts. This is a cold, grim, intermittently tense motion picture that fails to be as consistently entertaining as it should have been.