Film review: Child 44 - Tom Hardy anchors Soviet-set detective thriller
The title of Child 44 refers to its serial murder plotline but also does a disservice to the story's ambitious scope. Based on Tom Rob Smith's eponymous debut novel, this two-hour-plus odyssey through the Stalin-era Soviet Union blends spy thriller, detective mystery and an Orwellian drama pitching its protagonist against a totalitarian regime.
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Category: IIB
The title of Child 44 refers to its serial murder plotline but also does a disservice to the story's ambitious scope. Based on Tom Rob Smith's eponymous debut novel, this two-hour-plus odyssey through the Stalin-era Soviet Union blends spy thriller, detective mystery and an Orwellian drama pitching its protagonist against a totalitarian regime.
Also reviewed: Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner
The hero in question is Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), an orphan who survived the Holodomor in 1933, redeemed himself as a national war hero in 1945 Berlin, and in 1953, goes on to make a very decent living in Moscow as a member of the State Security Force known as the MGB. And he's married to Raisa (Noomi Rapace), a schoolteacher he loves wholeheartedly.
Demidov's reality begins to crack when his godson — the child of his war buddy Alexei (Fares Fares) — is found naked next to some train tracks having been tortured to death. Under the Soviet adage that crimes such as murder are capitalistic diseases with no place in the workers' paradise, Demidov must accept it as an accident or risk being accused of treason.
His belief in the system takes another dent when Raisa ends up on a list of possible spies that Demidov's team has extracted. Refusing to denounce his newly pregnant wife, Demidov is instead stripped of his rank and sent to the impoverished city of Volsk to work for the deviant local police chief General Nesterov (Gary Oldman).