Child 44

Child 44_360P

I was not expecting master piece but this movie was terrible. The story line was so stupid and full of plot holes, I am not sure is this movie trying to present the situation of the Russian killer Chikatilo or is some fictional character because if it was Chikatilo the story is even more stupid than I thought. So many good actors on display and yet the acting was not good I almost cant even find one department of this movie that I can say it was good. And how does Tom Hardy chose his roles, the has been on a terrible path and the last three movies (Locke, The Drop and Child 44) are quite bad. At least if you find the story interesting watch the movie made by HBO called Citizen X.

The Russian media these days is flooded with ugly anti-Western propaganda. Just a year ago a movie like Child 44 would be watched by millions of Russians without any objection from the Russian government. However, since Russia started the war in Ukraine, the ideological climate there dramatically changed. Now they are talking again about "enemies of the people" and about America that wants to destroy Russia. Russian trolls are everywhere in the western media. Read their angry reviews on this site, and you'll understand that we are dealing here with a national psychosis that overwhelmed Russia. Political issues aside, the movie shows no brilliancy at all. It's very average in quality, and has many factual errors. However, it's worth watching since it shows the Soviet human tragedy and helps American moviegoers to understand it. I give this movie a score of 10 only for one reason. If it upsets the intellectual midgets like the Russian minister of culture Mr. Medinsky and his cohorts, who work overtimes to distort and glorify the Soviet past, then the movie is absolutely successful.

This is a stellar movie with a stellar cast. I've thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It's a 2 hour and 17 minutes movie but I've totally forgotten about the time, caught up in the suspense. It's not the typical historical drama. This film is really precious in my opinion. I've always had this negative impression on the Russians or the Soviet Union, formed from the Cold War period. But this film is wonderful in showing that these Russians, they're just human like us. They would love to protect their loved ones. Amid their fierce madness, there is love and kindness too. Amid this crazy times, every single person's life is in danger. Everyone is trying, in their own way, to survive. Story wise, I really love how it all flows and ties in together. No random scenes, everything has it purpose and connection. It's a really beautiful story. And honestly, I didn't know much about Tom Hardy before but boy was he awesome as the lead! I won't forget him and this film at all, it'll be in one of my best seen films list. Oh and seriously, the cast is British, Swedish, none Russian by the way, but look at how convincing and real their Russian accent is! I was throughly impressed. In my knowledge, there are not many Hollywood films that would show the Russians in a positive manner, but this film does and I really love that fact. It changed my opinion on them. Everyone, just watch the film now and be impressed, I don't wanna give any spoilers ;)

I was really looking forward to seeing Child 44. Being a fan of the extraordinary Citizen X I was pumped that such a disturbing and riveting story such as Chikatilo's was getting the big budget treatment with a stellar cast. The bubble burst within the first few minutes, as I realised for some god-forsaken reason they'd decided to reinvent the story. The timeframe is completely wrong, the characters have newly invented pasts and worse of all Chikatilo's capture and fate is completely fabricated. Not only do they fail to arrest him and bring him to trial, he's assassinated in a forest by some tiresome agent with a grudge against the detective hunting the killer down. Utterly ridiculous and pointless. Pointless because if ever there was a story that didn't need reinvention to make it more interesting than reality it's this one. Chikatilo's story is so macabre, absurd and fantastical it doesn't need ridiculous embellishments. As for the movie itself, the acting is of a high standard, Hardy and Rapace in particular shine, but the faux-Russian accents of the whole cast are grating and another pointless decision. Why not just have them speak in their own accents, and credit the audience with enough intelligence to realise this is Russia and these are russians we're watching despite the accents. Stick with Citizen X, it's far superior and more rewarding.

We went to see Child 44 opening weekend. We were sent to a theatre in the back of the cinema. There were four people in the entire theatre. What a shame ~ and shame on whomever was in charge of promoting this movie. They truly fell on their face/faces. Child 44 was beautifully filmed ~ the scenery was breath taking ~ Sets were exceptionally well done...Tom Hardy was at his best as always...Another favorite of mine Joel Kinneman (sp?)was exceptional...as was Gary Oldman, though his screen presence was limited. All of the actors and actresses did a splendid job. I have little understanding as to why the promotion of this movie was so neglected. I seldom read reviews, but I read a couple and wonder if the reviewers actually watched this movie. Everyone did a splendid job ~ I highly recommend Child 44

This movie has been banned in Russia so it's a must see now. The imagery of what it was like to live in Stalin's Russia are very well done. In popular culture there have been very little focus by Hollywood on that part of history. One of the reasons is obviously that Soviet Russia was a closed society. The movie itself is gruesome and is not for everyone but I enjoyed the background and the setting of the movie and that it does give you a glimpse to what life in Soviet Russia really was. The other 2 negative reviewers are obviously Russians upset at anything that shows the Soviet reality. This is a unique look at the time period that gets very little attention by Hollywood and in my opinion a must see.

Child 44 is the story of an ex member of the Russian military police who investigates a series of child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union. I am struggling to think of a bad film that Tom Hardy has made . He is currently flavour of the month and quite rightly so but Child 44 is probably the worst thing he has done but it's not his fault. This film is all over the place. It can't decide whether it is a serial-killer thriller or an old-school anti-Soviet propaganda movie and just ends up failing miserably on both fronts. The editing is disastrous. It feels like a bunch of scenes all put together and not always in the correct order . I honestly thought there had been scenes accidentally deleted at one stage it was so bad and at 137 minutes you can't wait for the end credits to roll. 4 out of 10

Child 44 isn't the movie you watch for light entertainment. It is gritty and tough, and I found myself feeling a sense of absolute disgust for anyone and anything connected with the old school communist state in the USSR. It really makes you look at just how bad that system was and how monstrous the people were who enforced it on the general populace. Nonetheless, the story is compelling, although sometimes the thread jumps around a bit. Tom Hardy's performance was his best ever. I think he warrants an Academy for it. Noomi Rapace was excellent - very authentic in her role. Child 44 is a dark thriller - and without giving anything away, the build up and hatred toward the serial killer really sticks you to this movie - you simply want the killer to get the most gruesome death conceivable for what he does. Apart from the Hollywood aspect, this film depicts reality. This is how life existed under Communism and I think that message is just as compelling and important as the rest of the story - because it really depicted the terror and the suppression that millions of people lived under in the name of some douche bag's idea of "ideology". May Stalin forever lay dead and remembered for only one thing - he was a murdering asshole. Watch the film folks - I notice that the ratings were low, and I think that is an unfair assessment about the quality of this production.

This is a movie I've kept my eye on ever since it was revealed. Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman are two of my favorite working actors, and having them co-lead a Russian serial killer film seemed like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, Child 44 is not the slam dunk it could have been. It has the talent, it has the story (based on the best-selling novel); all the ingredients necessary for greatness are there. But it also has a plethora of baggage that bogs it down to mediocrity. Tom Hardy is the star of the film through and through. It's a story about his family life and professional life clashing over the case of a dead child. The officials want to pass it off as a train accident, but witnesses swear that it was a homicide. As more and more bodies start turning up and the higher-ups continue to look away, it's up to Hardy to find the killer and bring him to justice. Again, the acting in this film is great, as is the story. The problem is the way it's presented. Half of the movie is focused on the serial killer angle and Hardy's character going through the loops of finding the right person to help him on the case, and the other half is about Soviet officials exiling his family and stripping him of power for his disobedience. The way these stories intertwine is messy and confusing, for a number of reasons. For starters, the tone is all over the place. What should be a dark, gloomy mystery among the cold streets of Soviet Russia ends up as a haphazardly arranged domestic dispute due to political interference with a child murderer lurking around somewhere. There's no time for momentum to build when it's constantly changing course. Gary Oldman being billed a co-lead is a huge stretch. He's in the movie for about 20 minutes total and his character doesn't do much to further the story. Mind you, it's Gary Oldman so he gives a fine performance, but as someone who was looking forward to Hardy and Oldman sharing the scene for two plus hours, I was disappointed to say the least. And then there's the practical aspect. Hardy and Oldman are accent chameleons, there's no doubt about that. I didn't even know Oldman was British until I saw him in an interview. But why on earth are these Russian soldiers speaking to each other in English? For a wider audience no doubt, but it's such a basic matter of common sense that it bugged me continuously throughout the film. It's also far too long. A serial killer hunt stretched over the course of two hours and 15 minutes is exhausting. The tension becomes less and less dire as the movie progresses until you're just waiting for it to end. Child 44 isn't a bad movie, but its flaws are glaring. It's not the dark, edgy thriller you'd expect. In fact, to call it a thriller would be a misnomer. Child 44 is a tone-deaf political drama filled to the brim with wasted potential.