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Child 44

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Child 44

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Summary

Thriller based on the novel by Tom Rob Smith, starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace. In the oppressive Stalinist Soviet Union, a security officer investigates a series of child murders that the state would prefer to cover up.

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Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Emma Simmonds

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.

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6.4/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameLeo DemidovTom HardyGeneral Mikhail NesterovGary OldmanRaisa DemidovNoomi RapaceVasiliJoel KinnamanVladPaddy ConsidineAnatoly Tarasovich BrodskyJason Clarke (2)Major KuzminVincent CasselMajor GrachevCharles DanceIvan SukovNikolaj Lie KaasInessa NesterovTara FitzGeraldAlexanderJosef AltinThe coronerNed Dennehy

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Crew

rolenameDirectorDaniel Espinosa

Details

Theatrical distributor

Entertainment One

Released on

2015-04-17

Languages

English | Russian

Guidance

Violence, swearing, sex scenes

Available on

DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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