The Child in Time (2018)

This movie could be great if the screen time is longer but with the current runtime of less than 90 minutes, there is just not enough time to cover the kidnap of Mark's daughter and the mental illness of Charles. We ended up with a lot of scenes that seems irrelevant and unresolved loose ends. The movie started promising with Mark's daughter gone missing. Charles came along and I thought his connections would help in the search. Nothing happened. Then the focus shifted to Charles's mental illness. but his plot has nothing to do with Mark's loss. Charles plotline just disrupted the mood & pacing of the movie. Another weird plot is that Mark thought the had been to the pub before he has been born. What's the point adding this 'supernatural' vibe? And the wife hides the pregnancy from Mark seems like a missed opportunity in describing the couple's road to reconciliation. The movie just feels rushed and unfocused.Benedict is also a bit disappointing. He is phenomenal in Patrick Melrose but he is not up to his normal standard here. I can't feel his grief or loss but that might be partly due to the confusing plot making it difficult to immerse in the emotions. His performance paled in comparison with Lee Pace and Carrie Coon in 'the Keeping Hours', which is another recent movie on loss of a young child. I highly recommend this latter title if you like romantic tragedy.

OK, I admit I wanted to watch this because of Kelly MacDonald, who I think is incredibly sexy. Other than a few closeups of her face, that's it for her.This movie lost me from the beginning, then spun me around in circles just to make sure I didn't find my way out. Great....we're shifting time again...no warning...so you spend five minutes figuring out if this scene is before, after, during, in another dimension...??? NO chemistry between Cumberbatch and MacDonald. Sad. A lot of red herrings. The book about the boy named Fish....?? The new romance with the committee chick....? Why did Kelly disappear "I have to go away...."? (Just pregnancy? Why disappear? This isn't the 1900s...) The mysterious toss-off line the insane friend tells him---something along the lines of "I've done something really bad, you'll find out later..." What? Who knows? It's just one false lead after another, and of course none make any sense. If it makes any sense to you, you're a better man than I am.Where did it really go, in the end? I don't know, I really don't. Is this about some sort of mysticism or reincarnation? How could Cumberbatch appear as a boy to his pregnant mother? Who is the boy who appears then disappears on the subway? Cumberbatch? His friend? His imagination? No one of significance? Is the new baby a "replacement" for the lost girl? Is it the lost girl? God knows. the business about the PM and the report....what report? The report on the eduction system? Does anyone care? They don't seem to.What a mess. Where's the continuity girl when you need her?

This movie is hard to get into since it has many things going on. When the end came I thought that there was going to be a part two. There was not a part two-that was the movie in it's entirety. I did not like this movie. This is 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, the subject matter of the movie is not an easy one.Benedict Cumberbatch was really good in this. I applaud anything that takes on difficult subject matters, but it was a very strange movie and the plot was a little jagged in edges. I couldn't grasp where it was going or why. The unevenness of it makes it a tough one to rate and review. It was unsettling to watch and sometimes just plain odd.