A Massive Disappointment & Wasted Opportunity

Rating: 4/10 (29 July 2015)

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.