Directed by: Daniel Espinosa
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Paddy Considine,
Vincent Cassel, Fares Fares
As Child 44 wore on, I could not help but notice the similarities between its plot and the plot of the 1994 HBO movie Citizen X. Both are about the investigations into a series of murdered Russian children whose mutilated bodies were found near railroad tracks. Then, I learned Child 44 is based on a novel which used the murders in Citizen X (which took place roughly 30 years after the events in this movie) as inspiration. Citizen X is a superior film, which painstakingly takes us through an investigation fraught with frustration, dead ends, and Communist bureaucracy which hindered the investigation's process. Child 44 is much more labored and murkier. It is all over the map. Besides the murder investigation, the movie delves into the hero's troubled marriage, espionage in Stalinist Russia, politics, World War II, and an old beef between two characters that spills over into everything else. The child murders aren't introduced until about 45 minutes into the movie and the movie slams on the brakes to change direction.
Tom Hardy stars as Leo Demidov, a World War II hero fortunate enough to be the soldier chosen to fly the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in May 1945 and photographed (an allusion to Iwo Jima). Fast forward to 1953, and Leo is a high-ranking military man who hunts suspected traitors in the paranoid, dictatorial Soviet Union. This is the year Stalin died, but his imprint of fear and cruelty leaves an indelible impression. Leo is at odds with a rising underling Vasili (Kinnaman) who soon becomes his arch enemy. Leo is married to schoolteacher Raisa (Rapace), who married Leo more out of fear than love. She is soon suspected to be a traitor, Leo refuses to denounce her as a traitor, and the two are banished to the woods under the auspices of General Nesterov (Oldman), who likely wonders daily who he pissed off to be put in charge of that wasteland.
Leo's closest friend Alexei's (Fares) child is found murdered while Leo is still in Moscow. Under pressure from his superiors, Leo declares the death as accidental even though he was clearly murdered. According to Leo's bosses, murder is "a capitalist's disease" and in "there are no murders in paradise." When Leo arrives in Podunk, more bodies of dead children pop up and Leo determines a serial killer is at work. General Nesterov threatens Leo to not pursue a murder investigation, but we sort of know the General will soon assist Leo.
There are many subplots, but none which ever reach of state of urgency required in thrillers. Does it want to be a thriller? A documentary of Stalinist Russia? A love story of a revived marriage? Yes to all three, but by wanting to be about all of this, the movie isn't truly about any of them. I admired the performances and there is a lot of talent on both sides of the camera. The actors all speak in authentic sounding Russian accents, but sometimes the actors seem to be trying so hard to get the accent right at the expense of being understood. I would have preferred straight up English accents. We get that these people are Russian.
Leo's investigation leads him to a point where he is pointing his gun at the killer, Vladamir Malevich (Considine) . The killer is a disturbed, guilty man crushed by war as much as Leo was made famous by it. He explains through tears of misery and guilt that he can not help himself. It reminded me of Peter Lorre's justification in M (1931). Leo listens and lowers his gun, but then we are cheated out of a payoff. I won't say how, but this scene was the best in the movie and I felt shortchanged. I would have liked to have seen this sequence fleshed out at the expense of many others.
Child 44 meanders without much dramatic tug to pull us along. The film is in no hurry to get anywhere. Instead, we see strong actors adrift in a movie that doesn't quite know what it wants to be about.
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