Child 44
25/04/15 Filed in: Cinema
The choice of films this week was between A Touch of Chaos, with Kate Winslet, and Child 44. Reviews for both were not good, the former being somewhat whimsical, while the latter is dark and foreboding. I rather like Kate Winslet but decided in the end on Child 44, having listened to Noomi Rapace, who plays the female lead, on the Graham Norton show.
Once again I find myself liking a film that the critics have slated. It is set in 1950s USSR, with flashbacks, including the raising the soviet flag over the Reichstag during the Second World War. Leo, the male lead played by Tom Hardy, is a secret police agent with a conscience. Raisa, his wife, played by Noomi Rapace (of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) appears afraid of him, which is hardly surprising in the atmosphere of distrust and fear that pervades nearly every scene. Everything is bleak, people appear downtrodden, and dissidents do not fare well.
Once again I find myself liking a film that the critics have slated. It is set in 1950s USSR, with flashbacks, including the raising the soviet flag over the Reichstag during the Second World War. Leo, the male lead played by Tom Hardy, is a secret police agent with a conscience. Raisa, his wife, played by Noomi Rapace (of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) appears afraid of him, which is hardly surprising in the atmosphere of distrust and fear that pervades nearly every scene. Everything is bleak, people appear downtrodden, and dissidents do not fare well.
The son of one of Leo's fellow officers is killed, allegedly because of a train accident, but foul play is suspected. The only problem is that "There can be no murder in paradise", and any attempt to investigate the murder is regarded as treasonous. But this child's death turns out not to be the only one, and Leo risks everything to pursue the killer. Meanwhile Raisa has been identified as a dissident by the evidence of a tortured prisoner, and at one point Leo and her find themselves in the yard where dissidents are shot, both fearing the worse. However, instead they are sent to the "arse end of nowhere" as a punishment, Leo being demoted to a member of the local militia and Raisa, a teacher, to a cleaner in the local school. There is a bit of a bumpy settling in period, wherein another dead child is found, and Leo's new boss, Timur Nesterov (Gary Oldman) is less than happy at Leo's insistence that it is a murder similar to that which occurred in Moscow. However, ultimately Leo wins Nesterov over, and their investigation leads them to the children's killer. There have been 44 children, thus the title of the film.
If this is starting to sound a bit complicated, it is because it is! This is a film you need to watch carefully, and even then there's scope to become a bit confused.
The amazing thing is that Leo and Raisa emerge at the end a stronger couple, their fate having taken a turn for the better after his former secret police boss was dispatched, presumably to a labour camp or something worse, the implication being that Leo's exposure of the murderer caused a change of heart at the top. The official line was, however, that the murderer was the product of German manipulation during the war, there still being no acceptance that a Russian could carry out such acts in "paradise".
By the way, the critics didn't like the pseudo Russian accents. Certainly, this type of film will always benefit from the use of the native language, with subtitles, but then hardly anybody in the English speaking world would go to see it!
If this is starting to sound a bit complicated, it is because it is! This is a film you need to watch carefully, and even then there's scope to become a bit confused.
The amazing thing is that Leo and Raisa emerge at the end a stronger couple, their fate having taken a turn for the better after his former secret police boss was dispatched, presumably to a labour camp or something worse, the implication being that Leo's exposure of the murderer caused a change of heart at the top. The official line was, however, that the murderer was the product of German manipulation during the war, there still being no acceptance that a Russian could carry out such acts in "paradise".
By the way, the critics didn't like the pseudo Russian accents. Certainly, this type of film will always benefit from the use of the native language, with subtitles, but then hardly anybody in the English speaking world would go to see it!