"Catch the killer, expose the truth"
Directed by Daniel Espinosa
Produced by Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Greg Shapiro
Screenplay by Richard Price
Based on "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith
Starring: Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, Vincent Cassel
Music by Jon Ekstrand
Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot
Edited by Dylan Tichenor
Production companies: Summit Entertainment, Worldview Entertainment, Scott Free Productions
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release date: 17 April 2015 (United Kingdom)
Running time: 137 minutes
Country: United States, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia
Budget: $50 million
Box office: $13 million
"Child 44" is a thriller drama film directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Richard Price, and based on Tom Rob Smith's novel of the same name. The story is about a disgraced member of the military police who investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union.
Cast
- Tom Hardy as Leo Demidov
- Noomi Rapace as Raisa Demidova
- Joel Kinnaman as Vasili Nikitin
- Gary Oldman as General Nesterov
- Vincent Cassel as Major Kuzmin
- Jason Clarke as Anatoly Brodsky
- Paddy Considine as Vladimir Malevich
- Josef Altin as Alexander
- Sam Spruell as Doctor Tyapkin
- Ned Dennehy as The Coroner
- Fares Fares as Alexei Andreyev
- Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Ivan Sukov
- Anna Rust as Sasha
- Xavier Atkins as Pavel
- Sonny Ashbourne Serkis as Artur
- Kevin Clarke as MGB Agent
- Petr Vanek as Fyodor
- Max Rowntree as Andrej
- Michael Nardone as Semyon Okun
- Fedja Stukan as Sergei
- Anssi Lindström as Alexander Pickup
- Harmon Joseph as Vadim
- Charles Dance as Major Grachev
- Tara Fitzgerald as Inessa Nesterov
- Samuel Buttery as Varlan Babinic
Personally I maintained a healthy scepticism about "Child 44" as I didn't believe the foreigners could shoot a really good film about the Soviet Union and the film didn't make me change my mind. Too many mistakes, too much naivete... But I must say "thanks" as the picture didn't turn out grotesque at least.
As for advantages, I should mention strong performances of Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman who just can't act bad.
Advantages
- Tom Hardy as Leo Demidov
- Gary Oldman as General Nesterov
- Vincent Cassel as Major Kuzmin
Disadvantages
- Too many mistakes
Strangenesses
- Brodsky?
- Malevich?
Clue Moments
- Death of Leo's partner's son
- The accusation of Raise
- More child murder victims
- The tractor factory
- Two girls
The film appears very loosely based on the case of Andrei Chikatilo. Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper, who committed the sexual assault, murder and mutilation of a minimum of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Uzbek SSR. Chikatilo confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings in April 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death for 52 of these murders in October 1992 and subsequently executed in February 1994.
Soundtracks
- Jon Ekstrand - Opening
- Jon Ekstrand - There Is Only You
- Jon Ekstrand - Searching for Brodsky
- Jon Ekstrand - Brodsky Betrayed
- Jon Ekstrand - Orphaned
- Jon Ekstrand - There Is a Witness
- Jon Ekstrand - The Usual Process
- Jon Ekstrand - Apartment Search
- Jon Ekstrand - Vlad
- Jon Ekstrand - Are You a Spy?
- Jon Ekstrand - Volsk
- Jon Ekstrand - Another One
- Jon Ekstrand - Alexander's Death
- Jon Ekstrand - Raisa's Confession
- Jon Ekstrand - Seduced by Stamps
- Jon Ekstrand - Witness
- Jon Ekstrand - Meet the Malevichs
- Jon Ekstrand - Return to Volsk
- Jon Ekstrand - Captured
- Jon Ekstrand - Rostov
- Jon Ekstrand - Vlad's House
- Jon Ekstrand - Aftermath
- Jon Ekstrand - A New Home
- Jon Ekstrand - Leo & Raisa Demidov
Quotations
* * *
Raisa Demidov: Leo, do you know what people get around here when they demand the truth? Do you? They get terror.Leo Demidov: Raisa, we are already dead.
* * *
Leo Demidov: If you are so innocent, why do you run? Hmm?Anatoly Tarasovich Brodsky: That's a very good question. I run because you were following me. When you are followed, you are arrested. And when you are arrested, you are already guilty. So you tell me, why did I run?
* * *
Vasili: Is that how little you think of me?Alexei Andreyev: I don't think anything of you.
* * *
Tortoise: Your father?Young Leo Demidov: [yes]
Tortoise: Dead?
Young Leo Demidov: [yes]
Tortoise: What's your name?
Young Leo Demidov: I don't want it any more.
Tortoise: I'll give you a new one. Leo. Like a lion.
* * *
Title Card: There is no murder in paradise.Title Card: In 1933, at the height of Joseph Stalin's state-imposed famine against the Ukrainian people, an estimated 25,000 died each day from starvation. The systematic extermination by hunger known as the Holodomor, left millions of children orphaned.
* * *
Leo Demidov: Raisa. Do you think that... that I am... That I am truly a frightful man? You think maybe I am... a monster?Raisa Demidov: [quietly but firmly] No.
* * *
Tortoise: What did you expect when you came here? That we didn't mind dying? That Raisa would be saved? But if you don't denounce her, we will die, all four of us. With the only difference, that you would die knowing in your heart that you did the right thing. And so you calculate. One dead. Or four. One dead. Or four.
* * *
Vladimir Malevich: At the end of the day, hero, monster... we are both killers, you and I. Tell me, are there no children on your conscience, Leo? You knew what you were doing and you chose to do it. But me,[sobbing]
Vladimir Malevich: I can't help it. I can't.
* * *
You may see the trailer here.
Plot: 5/10
Entertainment: 6/10
Acting: 6/10
Originality: 6/10
Music and Sound: 7/10
6/10
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