Wasted Potential

Rating: 4/10 (25 August 2015)

The main problem with Child 44 is the narrative is split into two stories. On one hand, it's the serial killer mystery (the one the trailer promised) and the other is the Russian government hunting down Tom Hardy's character (the one the trailer kept hidden). The problem being the serial killer storyline is hardly established/relevant to the movie, and the other storyline gets too much attention. From what the trailer gives us about the movie, I expected a tense mystery thriller with a pretty frightening story (a killer running rampant in Russia).
Instead, the movie skimps over this story by basically using it as a backdrop for the other story of Tom Hardy's accent vs Russia. And when we finally come to a close as to who and why the killer does what he does, it makes little to no sense and couldn't be more disappointing. And before you know it that plot point is over and we're back to Tom Hardy dodging the back MGB.
And like I said, the serial killer mystery is second string while the government/spy story is the main force. And that's too bad because this story just isn't at all interesting, especially when you keep waiting for the other story to take over. To put it simply, there was just too much going on for the movie to make it thrilling. The movie is based on a book and like a lot of adaptations, the book didn't translate well to film.
Do not go into this movie expecting it to be anything like the (pretty damn great) trailer, Child 44 is flat out too long and extremely short on thrills. There is almost no tension to speak of (certainly none involving the serial killer storyline). Maybe I went into the movie expecting something different and that could be my fault, but what was put on screen was nothing short of disappointing. It's unfortunate, but this type of story had so much potential and completely falls flat.