A disgraced member of the military police investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union.
Director:
Daniel Espinosa
Writers:
Richard Price (screenplay),
Tom Rob Smith (novel)
Stars:
Tom Hardy,
Gary Oldman,
Noomi Rapace |
See full cast and crew »
Storyline
Based on the first of a trilogy by Tom Rob Smith and set in the Stalin era of the Soviet Union. The plot is about an idealistic pro-Stalin security officer who decides to investigate a series of child murders in a country where supposedly this sort of crime doesn't exist. The state would not hear of the existence of a child murderer let alone a serial killer. He gets demoted and exiled but decides, with just the help of his wife, to continue pursuing the case.Movie Reviews
If
you want to see this movie - done right - watch "Citizen X," the HBO
movie that supposedly 'inspired" Child 44, but outshines it in every
conceivable way.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112681/?ref_=nv_sr_4
Anyone will be able to see where Child 44 borrows from Citizen X, but where Citizen is a true-to-the-facts, utterly chilling story about one of the worst serial killers in history, Andrei Chikatilo, the telling of which is so much more creepy and horrifying for its simplicity and lack of "Hollywood" style embellishment.
Child 44 tries far too hard to be too many things, and fails at them all. The child murders, which are supposed to be the story's catalyst, end up feeling brushed over and tacked on, while the real-life bureaucracy and just plain pigheadedness of the government-in-denial that was almost complicit in many of the deaths due to inaction, becomes a confused and unreal spy/love story/rivalry conundrum that ends up feeling contrived and unfocused.
In recommending Citizen X to people, as I often have over the years, as possibly the best movie about a serial killer ever made, it is for precisely all the reasons where Child 44 goes wrong. Citizen X is wonderful writing and acting, is frightening and believable, a true look at a human turned monster, because it isn't overdone and pumped full of clichés and contrived action.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112681/?ref_=nv_sr_4
Anyone will be able to see where Child 44 borrows from Citizen X, but where Citizen is a true-to-the-facts, utterly chilling story about one of the worst serial killers in history, Andrei Chikatilo, the telling of which is so much more creepy and horrifying for its simplicity and lack of "Hollywood" style embellishment.
Child 44 tries far too hard to be too many things, and fails at them all. The child murders, which are supposed to be the story's catalyst, end up feeling brushed over and tacked on, while the real-life bureaucracy and just plain pigheadedness of the government-in-denial that was almost complicit in many of the deaths due to inaction, becomes a confused and unreal spy/love story/rivalry conundrum that ends up feeling contrived and unfocused.
In recommending Citizen X to people, as I often have over the years, as possibly the best movie about a serial killer ever made, it is for precisely all the reasons where Child 44 goes wrong. Citizen X is wonderful writing and acting, is frightening and believable, a true look at a human turned monster, because it isn't overdone and pumped full of clichés and contrived action.
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