Child 44 (2015)

Child 44 is a total mess and huge disappointment. I expected so much more. Like other reviewers, I wanted to like this film. Actors are wasted and it's very hard to understand the accents. A superficial poorly directed movie. I was frustrated with it.

Set in Stalin's post-war Soviet Union, this story of serial child killings runs parallel with that of the strained relations between Hardy and Rapace's lead characters, Leo and Raisa. In Moscow, the discovery of a friend's son's body and the state's denial of such crimes and subsequent cover up provoke something in Leo. He uses his powers as a senior Soviet police officer to pursue the perpetrator, against orders. This, combined with an embarrassing clash with a fellow comrade sees him stripped of rank and dispatched to a dystopian, remote industrial town as punishment. Dismissed from her teaching job, Raisa goes with him. As forces conspire against Leo, they must make a stand together. So, a different town but yet, another murder. What is their connection? Desperate to find answers, especially for his friend, Leo must persuade the local police chief that there is a connection between here and Moscow, where his case started. This film depicts the daily grind and harshness endured by the Soviet people together with the political paranoia prevalent during this era. All of this portrayed convincingly by a quality cast.

I was quite disappointed because I had read the book, which I recommend instead. The book has some stunning surprises and plot twists -- all of which were eliminated for this movie. As a result, much doesn't make sense.Important characters -- including the killer -- are undeveloped.The movie does a fair job of capturing the feeling of oppression, although the paranoia in the book is more intense.

Child 44 follows a man who, after learning of the deaths of several children, begins a search for the man who murdered them, despite the fact that they were written off as accidents. I love me a good crime thriller, really I do. And when I see a plot like this where the movie is brave enough to deal with a subject like murdering children, then it casts Tom Hardy, then color me interested. Unfortunately, the actual plot doesn't start until the last forty minutes of this 137 minutes film. And even then, none of it is really all that interesting or even easy to follow. In fact by the time the plot starts rolling the script just stops trying to make sense. There's a scene that, under normal circumstances, would sound pretty awesome where a bunch of people start fighting and killing each other on a train cart, but in context there isn't actually any. The scene begins when some random expendable character pulls out a knife and tries to attack the protagonists. Somehow said protagonists know exactly what he's planning the second he stands up, and this big fight ensues. Sure, it's cool, but it doesn't make any sense. At that point I gave up on trying to understand the movie. The actual finding of the killer ends up being super anti- climatic and watered down, and it's just not engaging at all. What about the 100 minutes leading up to the actual plot you may ask? Nothing happens. It's 'character development' where none of the characters are interesting and nothing that pulls, or more drags, the oncoming plot along are anything special. It's just a whole lot of nothing.Overall Child 44 is kind of boring and dumb for the vast majority of it, yet somehow worse when the actual plot starts. In the end I would never recommend this colossal waste of time and talent.