Film Review: Child 44

 Genre: Drama, Thriller

Cert: 15 cert

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Screen writer: Richard Price (screenplay), Tom Rob Smith (novel)

Starring: Xavier Atkins,  Mark Lewis Jones ,  Tom Hardy , Joel Kinnaman , Fares Fares , Karel Dobrey , Noomi Rapace , Agnieszka Grochowska , Petr Vanek , Jana Stryková , Jason Clarke , Ursina Lardi , Michael Nardone , Jemma O'Brien , Lottie Steer

Running time: 137 min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: A man and a woman having sex in a bed. We see only his bare back and the buttocks partially. This scene is brief and very early on in the film.

Violence & Gore:

• A military soldier shots a man and a woman in the head. Blood spurts.

• A man stabs himself in the abdomen with the knife in order to avoid being capture by the military soldier. He recovers.

• A scene of an alleged murdered boy (naked). We see scratch marks in the back. This scene is disturbing to the viewers.

• Another scene of an alleged murdered boy (partially naked).

• Two homosexual men witness a dead body of a boy (entire body buried by the leaves, only see a hand). This scene is brief.

• A young boy kills himself by walking onto the approaching train (on-screen). Later, we see his dead body lying on the tracks.

• A man strangles another man to death with a telephone cord.

• A fight breaks out in a train carriage and a few men are stabbed and killed.

• A man is suddenly shot in the back by another man. Blood spurts. Another is shot in the head a little later.

• A hand-to-hand fighting between two men. Ultimately, he kills him by pounding his head into the rock in a rather graphic way

Profanity:  About 15 uses of F--k, other milder profanities used infrequently throughout.

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:

• The lead character is seen smoking in a few scenes throughout.

• Some men are injected with a truth serum drug. 

Frightening/Intense Scenes:  The plot of this film is about the series of child killings with the total of 44. However, we don't know who the serial killer is. This argues whether the child died in a train accident or just killed.

Story: 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.

Likes : I've seen a lot of review about this film comparing it to the book complaining this this is nothing like the way it is told in a book but its just a adaptation of the book, this is the problem people seem to forget that its extremely hard to put a illustrated book in to a concept of character in a 2 hour film.

Ive never read the book, but this film for what it is, isn't bad, a little sloe but you have to understand that this is a character driven story set in the high during the second world war where Russia U.S.S.R is trying to weed out spy & traitors that worked for the Nazis during the war.

First thing i will point out is Tom Hardy performance is outstanding, for a British guy to sound like a Ukraine soldier is amazing ; he has the gift that Saoirse Ronan has in changing their voice to actually sound like the character they are playing. This is a great acting skill to have being an actor or actress, it what makes the character more believable.

Though out most of the film its very Emotionally, gripping, thought provoking and tense

 as you see the character been thrown one situation to another, where lives are being torn apart to moments where there on a man hunt for a child killer. With a great supporting cast performances from Naomi Rapace (who i first saw in Prometheus ) and Gary Oldman Fantastic actor , this was a totally satisfying movie experience to watch very gripping & gritty film.

 its good to see Joel Kinnaman getting more role since he come in to the acting scene from robocop, although his character was predictable you could see that ending coming just by the way the character attitude changes over time from what i can see it that jealously got the better of him, because no one would take him seriously but they did Tom hardy character.

As for the films political and historical accuracy its not very accurate , but it's a film not a documentary you wouldn't say gladiator isn't good because it's not accurate it's not meant to be it's purely fiction with the exception of the fact it's based on a serial killer from the same country, so if you watch this just watch it for the film it is, great story & character driven film if you in to the drama war time film's. 

  

Dislikes : The only minor problem is just pacing, if your fine with a slow burning film in pace your be fine with the film but not all drama type film coming off entertaining because the story can be told very slow on the concept, the slowness of the film can make you bored of watching it, but this wasn't to bad although a little slow at time.

Overall : Great acting performance, brilliant casting, great story.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 for entertainment / 7 out of 10 for concept war period drama.