Child 44

This adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's bestseller shakes up the serial killer flick, transposing the customary grisly crimes to the Stalin-era Soviet Union. It follows tarnished MGB agent Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) and his clandestine pursuit of a child killer, accompanied by his plucky wife Raisa (Noomi Rapace). Swedish director Daniel Espinosa's moody, interrogative approach suits the subject and Hardy is believably tortured as an apparently monstrous man who we come to admire. The film explores the difficulty of investigating crime in a society where even the murders of innocents aren't recognised as such, yet this complexity proves hard to tackle. Even at 137 minutes, the story feels abbreviated and a distinguished cast (including Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel) are restricted in small roles and struggle with Russian accents. Efforts to balance the political context, murder hunt and romance are muddled but Child 44 grows in stature and suspense as it gains focus, eventually revealing itself as a murky depiction of desperately unjust, fearful times.