Two unsatisfying story lines

Rating: 3/10 (30 April 2015)

Child 44 is not a detective story.
Nor does it make any sense otherwise.
I watched the trailer here to be sure, and yes, this movie is advertised as the story of a search for a serial killer. It is not! I guesstimate that maybe one fifth of the storyline concerns police vs. a serial killer, and that storyline about chasing down a serial killer is very superficial, in which deductions are made as if "out of the blue," and the killer is apprehended quickly. No suspense whatsoever.
The main thrust of the "plot" is just as silly: a policeman (Tom Hardy) is a hero, is then disgraced and demoted (for dubious reasons), becomes a hero again and is promoted. Since the thrust of the movie portrays a regime's iron control over its citizens, it's illogical and even laughable that our "hero" should be reinstated after going way off the grid to pursue a killer against orders. That's just one prime example of this movie's nonsense!
Another example: the character that Gary Oldman plays doesn't serve any purpose.
Considering that the neither of the two story lines makes any sense, I'm inclined to believe that neither does the depiction of life at a certain time in soviet Russia.
I agree with reviewer John Wayne from United States: "Citizen X" (1995) is an excellent movie about a search for a serial killer under a soviet regime: I recommend it.