Child 44

Child 44 (15)

USA/UK 2014 137 minutes Dir: Daniel Espinosa Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, Paddy Considine, Vincent Cassel

A disappointingly clunky adaptation of a bestselling novel that looks like it’s been edited with a pair of secateurs, Child 44 mixes an unconvincing depiction of Stalinist Russia with tedious procedural mystery to increasingly frustrating effect. In all fairness, Tom Rob Smith’s source novel is no masterpiece, relying on reams of Dan Brown style prosaic description instead of allowing the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. However, it does at least convince us of the period it depicts, which is more than can be said of the movie. Reviews have picked up on the accents of the actors, all of whom sound like Constantine from last year’s Muppets Most Wanted, but that’s the least of the problems.

In one of those perversely contradictory movie experiences, an outstanding cast visibly gives their all whilst the narrative crashes down around them. The Dark Knight Rises and Locke star Tom Hardy plays Leo Demidov, an agent in Stalin’s military police force whose ascension towards the top ranks has been boosted by his background as a Second World War hero. (In an example of director Daniel Espinosa and screenwriter Richard Price’s tin-eared literal-mindedness, we get a brief flashback blitzkrieg of wartime Berlin action, just in case an economical bit of dialogue wouldn’t emphasise the point clearly enough.)

Smith’s novel is a multi-stranded beast, as much an evocation of oppressive Stalinist Russia as it is a disturbing mystery revolving around a spate of grisly child killings (based on real-life murderer Andrei Chikatilo). But Price’s script struggles, initially putting the killings on the back foot whilst a host of other incidents take precedence, including Demidov’s early apprehension of vet and suspected spy Anatoly (Jason Clarke). So crucial to the initial stages of the book, where it plays into Demidov’s guilt as to whether he has ever apprehended a truly guilty person, this is one of many sequences that comes across as borderline incomprehensible in the film.

The over-stuffed nature of Price’s script rapidly takes in Leo’s slimy professional rival Vassili (Joel Kinnaman), his shifty superior Major Kuzmin (Vincent Cassel) and his troubled relationship with schoolteacher wife Raisa (Noomi Rapace). Needless to say, a series of convoluted events eventually sees a disgraced Leo and Raisa exiled to the industrial wastes of the Motherland, where our demoted central character discovers more evidence of the earlier child killings. Leo must then partner with new superior officer General Nesterov (Gary Oldman) to solve the case and bring the culprit to justice.

If the script is flawed, then Safe House director Espinosa’s heavy-handed direction sure doesn’t help, relying on characters shouting and punching each other in the face with such abandon that it’s a wonder they’re not all thrown in a gulag together. It’s in direct opposition to the authenticity of Smith’s novel, and as the serial killing plot gathers apace, the movie has amassed so much badwill that it’s hard to care. However, it’s no fault of the actors. Hardy, who in his best work carries a haunted, brooding air about him, is both physically brawny and emotionally sensitive, and his scenes with the equally excellent Rapace are powerful in their sense of marital discord. Every performer gets their place to shine, including the always terrific – and here sadly underused – Oldman who in one piercing close-up realises the threat the killer poses to his own children. But these are isolated pleasures in a messy goulash of a movie that lurches from one scene to another with no discernible rhyme or reason.