Murder Most Foul and Longwinded
Like other totalitarian regimes, the Soviet Union preferred to blame foreign influences for crimes, among them murder – a crime reportedly viewed by Stalin as a “capitalist invention.” The Soviet strongman went as far as to declare that there were “no murders in paradise,” even as his regime killed millions from the late 1920s to the start of the Cold War in the early 1950s.
Filmmaker Daniel Espinosa revisits this murky, paranoid world of twisted truths and denunciations with “Child 44,” a US-UK-Czech-Romanian whodunit period drama set in the last days of the Stalin era.
Based on British writer Tom Rob Smith’s eponymous 2008 novel, the film follows Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), a highly decorated secret policeman in the MGB (the predecessor of the more notorious KGB), as he seeks to investigate a series of child murders that he suspects are committed by a serial killer.
A loyal Stalinist and war hero, Demidov pursues his leads relentlessly like a bloodhound, as would any dedicated policeman. He also balances this quality with an empathy for his victims stemming from his experiences during the Holodomor, the famine in Ukraine that killed up to seven million people, mostly children, in the 1930s. However, his superior, Major Kuzmin (Vincent Cassel), refuses to acknowledge the possibility of murder, and forces him to attribute the deaths to accidents and other causes, even though one of the victims is the son of his friend Aleksey Andreyev (Fares Fares).
Instead, Demidov is pressured into denouncing his wife Raisa (Noomi Rapace) for her doubtful complicity in a foreign plot. The pressure, along with the sinister machinations of his colleague Vasili Nikitin (Joel Kinnaman), undermine Demidov’s faith in the system and his determination to find the killer, even if it means disgrace and exile. However, it doesn’t stop him from carrying on his quest with a little help from Raisa and Timur Nemestrov, a sympathetic, if initially paranoid, provincial militia general played by Gary Oldman.
The first novel in a trilogy that includes “The Secret Speech” and “Agent 6,” “Child 44” is the ideal backdrop for a whodunit. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot ably recreates as the Stalinist era’s atmosphere of fear, mistrust and paranoia that leaves the characters suspicious of one another, through insecure glances, muted colors and the use of torture and devices like truth drugs. Based on the crimes of Soviet-era serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, or the Rostov Ripper, in the 1970s and ’80s, who confessed to killing 54 victims instead of 44, Espinosa shows himself on familiar ground in this genre. Helming the project after veteran director Ridley Scott declined, though the latter stayed on as producer, “Child 44” evokes Espinosa’s work at the helm of the 2011 spy thriller “Safe House,” starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds.
Hardy delivers a strong performance in his role as Demidov. Sporting a Russian accent and brutish attitude reminiscent of his role as Bane opposite Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight Rises,” the intensity of his performance shows his character’s efforts to retain his humanity during his pursuit of the killer, even as the authorities constantly undermine his efforts. Kinnaman is just as effective in his turn as Nikitin, the Swede managing to balance zeal and fanaticism with an automatic, soulless turn that’s more mechanical than his role as Robocop in the 2013 remake.
However – spoiler alert – Espinosa’s use of red herrings, notably a fabricated conspiracy centering on Raisa’s alleged accomplice Brodsky (Jeremy Clarke), misfires in the film. While the plot point might work in the book as a glimpse into the character’s state of mind, on screen it seems like an elaborate, nearly pointless diversion whose outcome is comparatively insignificant to its intricacy. Most of all, “Child 44” is hampered by a plodding, meandering pace for much of its 137-minute length, like “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” which also starred Oldman and Hardy. This serves to stifle interest in the movie, even as it generated controversy after it was banned in Russia as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Part period whodunit, part retro Cold War propaganda, “Child 44” ultimately shares the fate of the regime it portrays, as its epic efforts to make a statement fall short on feet of clay.
The Peak
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“Child 44” Summit Entertainment, Worldview Entertainment and Scott Free Productions Directed by Daniel Espinosa Produced by Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Greg Shapiro Screenplay by Richard Price based on the novel “Child 44” by Tom Rob Smith Starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman 137 minutes English with Indonesian subtitles
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