Child 44: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
After a friend’s son is found dead, Soviet secret-police officer Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) suspects his superiors are covering up the truth. When Leo dares to raise questions, he is demoted and exiled to a provincial outpost with his wife (Noomi Rapace). There, Leo soon discovers other mysterious deaths with similar circumstances and convinces his new boss (Gary Oldman) that a deranged serial killer is on the loose-and must be stopped before he strikes again in this electrifying thriller.
I love a good period piece (I’m sure you’ve read that a few times from me) and a good mystery so I figured this would be perfect for me. The mystery surrounding the murder of the child was one of the things that pulled me in and really grabbed my attention. Seeing the time-frame where it all took place it made the film feel a bit more raw for some reason. It was interesting to see the origins of Russian homicide detective work back in the day as well as but the thing that was a bit weird for me was the espionage subplot. It was fine that it was included and it was pretty interesting but it didn’t seem to pay off nor did it even really close it out. They just seemed to push it aside and forget about it which was disappointing. The payoff of the main plot was much more satisfying and surprising but unfortunately you have to sit through the spy stuff. All the actors involved are fantastic and are some of my favorites, especially Hardy and Rapace but I think the way the story was told kind of hurt the film a bit. If you aren’t 100% sure that you are going to watch the whole film through then you might find yourself becoming disinterested BUT just so you know the finale of the film is a good one. Oh and Tom Hardy sound like his Bane character without the mask from The Dark Knight Rises. 7/10
Special Features:
Reflections of History: Recreating the World of Child 44 – This feature look at the production design aspect as well as interviews from the cast and crew.
