As of this writing, CHILD 44 has only a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so it was with great trepidation that I attended a screening. I'm so glad I did. Based on the bestselling Tom Rob Smith novel, the, written by Richard Price (THE COLOR OF MONEY, SEA OF LOVE) and directed by the Swedish-born Daniel Espinosa (EASY MONEY, SAFE HOUSE), CHILD 44 is a sprawling story set in the waning years of Joseph Stalin's rule. A brutal, Soviet military police officer named Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) hunts a serial killer but faces the obstacle of a system which denies that murders can even exist in such a worker's paradise, thereby forcing him to question the regime itself.
Although set in the 1950s, the story is loosely based on Andrei Chikatilo, aka The Butcher of Rostov, who left a bloody trail across the U.S.S.R. between 1978 and 1990. I happened to find myself in Rostov in the 1980s, and like the Russian citizenry, was completely unaware that there was a madman on the prowl. As such, my interest in this story may be considerably higher than most casual moviegoers.
That's a huge caveat, because the is very slow and moody. Its overstuffed plot could fill a multiplex and often ventures into pulpy territory. Not content to be only a hunt-for-the-killer procedural, we're treated to professional jealousy, marital strife, closeted gay men ratting on others, small town vs. big city police tactics, the plight of the orphans, a blind alley trip to Moscow, and more. This complexity, however, is the point. A system that required multiple levels of spying on your neighbors, routine torture, random executions, and political prisoners required a propaganda machine to convince the masses that they were living in heaven. North Korea's government uses such Stalinist tactics to this day.
There just wasn't room for an officer to upset the apple cart with the truth, so CHILD 44 takes great pains to detail the amount of effort put into covering up the whole thing. In addition to Hardy, who despite a too-thick Russian accent, gives a powerful, towering performance of a man waking up for the first time, the cast does a terrific job of setting a believable tone.
Noomi Rapace plays Hardy's wife, Raisa, a woman who has her own share of secrets. In an early scene, she's fiercely intelligent yet strangely guarded as Hardy recounts to their friends how they first met. It's a sumptuous dinner scene, and from there Rapace deftly peels back the layers of her character to reveal the desperation and conflicting feelings at her core. I haven't been too fond of her English language performances until she worked with Hardy, both here and in THE DROP. With the right material, she's a staggering actor who wears layers of emotions so beautifully on her face.
Gary Oldman grounds the as General Nesterov, a small town police officer who may be the only person sympathetic to Leo's cause. It's a quiet performance, but one in which the empathy of people living under severe oppression is given voice. On the complete other end of the spectrum is Joel Kinnaman as the sadistic officer Vasili. His power struggles with Leo frame the, and despite the fact that Kinnaman is a world-class actor, he's more a bad guy of the twirling moustache variety. Despite this, he has one shining moment early in the, when his reaction to an execution is simultaneously frightening and vulnerable. Vincent Cassel, Jason Clarke, and Paddy Considine also provide solid support. Cassel in particular is chilling as a government official who will stop at nothing to maintain his comparatively privileged lifestyle.
In addition to the cast, the cinematography by the great Oliver Wood and Production Design by Jan Roelfs goes a long way towards establishing just the right amount of melancholy and the perfect look and feel of Soviet living quarters, especially as Leo and Raisa's fortunes falter. Sure, this won't be everybody's samovar of tea, and yes, the 3rd act literally sinks in the mud, but I felt something here. While redemption stories are as old as time, I found CHILD 44 to be a moving experience through its perhaps too-complicated arc of a barbarous man quelling monsters, both external and from within.
