Child 44 - Film Review

Child 44 is directed by Daniel Espinosa (who also directed last year's science fiction horror Alien rip-off Life), written by Richard Price (who actually co-wrote a few episodes of The Wire and co-created The Night Of) and it's based on the Tim Rob Smith novel of the same name. Set in 1950's Russia, Leo Demidov, played by Tom Hardy, is a captain in the MGB and highly respected for his work in the Soviet Union as a sergeant during the Battle of Berlin. His wife Raisa, played by Noomi Rapace, is named as a traitor and after refusing to denounce her they're both exiled out of Moscow. Oh yeah and there's a string of grizzly child murders for them to solve as well! 

There's a serious lack of focus in Child 44, it's supposed to be a murder mystery but so much time is spent elsewhere that it's hard to consider it as one, it's like Espinosa was trying to juggle too many themes and in doing so we don't really get a good sense of any of them. It's definitely not a bad movie though and I enjoyed a lot of elements of it but it's not something that pays off in the end. I enjoyed Altered Carbon which starred Joel Kinnama but he didn't belong here, his character did nothing for the narrative other than to serve as some sort of antagonist and it just wasn't necessary, either that or just take out the murder mystery element, either one!

The fact that we're watching people who aren't Russian doing Russian accents is also very noticeable, it's hard to ignore, especially when Gary Oldman turns up, and even more so when Charles Dance makes an appearance towards the end of the film, he played Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, and I just thought, why's he here? Are there any Russians in this film at all? Tom Hardy was great, he's always great, he worked and I didn't mind his accent but why are all these other non-Russians here? Joel Kinnama, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke for fuck sake? I'm not offended or anything it was just noticeable that almost no actual Russians were in this.

It's definitely not a bad film, I actually enjoyed a lot of elements of it and for the most part I was invested in the characters and the story, the performances were fine, Hardy's definitely the highlight, Noomi Rapace also did a good job, a little one note but she was fine, Joel Kinnaman plays a decent villain, I could have probably done without Gary Oldman's character, Jason Clarke certainly didn't need to be here nor did Charles Dance, that was the most pointless! It's all sufficient though, it's filmed well, the cinematography's a little one note, grey and muddy but it works I suppose and the writing's a little muddled as to where the focus should lay but I'd put that more on Espinosa' direction.

All in all I'd have to say that it's probably worth giving Child 44 a miss, there's not enough murder mystery stuff to watch it for that, the interesting investigatory element is almost completely absent from the film. As a period piece it's okay I suppose, it's better to go in for that than for a murder mystery! This should have just been about Tom Hardy and his time under the Soviet Union, the hardships he had to face with his wife who was considered a traitor and have Joel Kinnaman as the villain, forget the child murders completely or just have a film about Tom Hardy as a detective trying to solve them, I'm gonna give Child 44 6.3/10 and an extremely luke warm recommendation.

What did you think of Child 44?