Child 44

Director: Daniel Espinosa Daniel Espinosa

Overview

Based on the best selling novel, this /action thriller set in 1953 Soviet Russia details an exiled secret police agent (Tom Hardy) relentlessly hunting for a serial killer who targets young boys. His investigation reveals an unsettling coverup and conspiracy, pitting him against the ruthless government agents behind it.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2015
UPC:	0031398225874
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Language:	English
Sales rank:	2,481

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tom Hardy	Leo Demidov
Noomi Rapace	Raisa Demidov
Joel Kinnaman	Vasili
Gary Oldman	General Mikhail Nesterov
Vincent Cassel	Major Kuzmin
Jason Clarke	Anatoly Tarasovich Brodsky
Paddy Considine	Vladimir Malevich
Michael Nardone	Semyon Okun
Ivan G'Vera	Budenny
Charles Dance	Major Grachev
Tara Fitzgerald	Inessa Nesterov
Nikolaj Lie Kaas	Ivan Sukov
Ned Dennehy	Coroner
Sam Spruell	Doctor Tyapkin
Josef Atlin	Alexander
Petr Vanek	Fyodor
Fares Fares	Alexei Andreyev
Agnieszka Grochowska	Nina Andreyeva
Mark Lewis Jones	Tortoise
Xavier Atkins	Young Leo Demidov
Daniel Espinosa	Actor
Jon Ekstrand	Actor,Composer
Ridley Scott	Actor
Christopher Assells	Actor
Michael Schaefer	Actor
Wade Barnett	Actor
Bob Beemer	Actor
Adam Merims	Actor
Nicholas Cochran	Actor
Elishia Holmes	Actor
Robert Dufek	Actor
Douglas Urbanski	Actor
Kevin Plank	Actor
Molly Conners	Actor
Maria Cestone	Actor
Sarah E. Johnson	Actor
Hoyt David Morgan	Actor
Karel Dobrý	Actor
Ursina Lardi	Actor
Lottie Steer	Tamara Okun
Zdenek Barinka	Jora Aleksevic Andreyev
Finbar Lynch	Doctor Boris Zarubin
Josef Altin	Alexander
Vlastina Svátková	Rostov parent
Sonny Ashbourne Serkis	Artur
Fedja Stukan	Driver at Crime Scene

Technical Credits

Richard Price

Daniel Espinosa	Director
Richard Price	Screenwriter
Ridley Scott	Producer
Michael Schaefer	Producer
Greg Shapiro	Producer
Maria Cestone	Executive Producer,Producer
Kevin Plank	Executive Producer,Producer
Elishia Holmes	Executive Producer,Producer
Molly Conners	Executive Producer,Producer
Sarah E. Johnson	Executive Producer,Producer
Adam Merims	Executive Producer,Producer
Hoyt David Morgan	Executive Producer,Producer
Douglas Urbanski	Executive Producer,Producer
Christopher Assells	Sound Effects
Yuval Bar-on	Sound Effects
Wade Barnett	Sound Effects
Bob Beemer	Sound Effects
Nicholas Cochran	Sound Effects
Robert Dufek	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

In Stalin's Ukraine, in the thick of the brutal Holodomor (the artificial famine that killed millions), an orphanage is filled with starving children. Some lay listlessly on stained mattresses, waiting for death, while those who still have their strength savage and humiliate their peers. One boy has had enough. He grabs his meager remaining possessions and runs into the woods, where he's found by a military patrol whose officers admire his determination to not become another casualty. They give him food and a new name -- Leo, like a lion. Years later Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) is a war hero, famous for raising the hammer and sickle atop the conquered Reichstag, a successful officer in the MGB (the KGB's precursor), and is married to a serenely beautiful schoolteacher, Raisa (Noomi Rapace). Death is capricious in a society where strangers denounce each other, and it's his job to follow up on every lead with patience and severity. But his loyalty to the state is tested when the young son of his adoptive brother Alexei (Fares Fares) is found naked and mutilated along the train tracks. The official report declares he was hit by a train. "A train cannot undress a child," the unmollified mother shrieks. But any other alternative is impossible: Stalin's state is a worker's paradise, and there is no murder in paradise. There's a lot packed into this adaptation of the Tom Rob Smith novel of the same name: a murder mystery, political intrigue, an indictment of Stalin's cruelty, an exploration of how human behavior is shaped by corrupt institutions, a rivalry over a woman, and a meticulously furnished and costumed period drama. (It's not often movies about Stalinist Russia can be described as "rich," but the authentic texture of this film, from sumptuous Kremlin drawing rooms to the smocking on a peasant girl's dress, is exceedingly eye-pleasing.) And, standing out in a cast that includes stalwarts like Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel, Tom Hardy brings a magnetic, sensual menace that's almost Brando-esque to a character that's nuanced yet heroic. That's almost enough meaty stuff for an entire TV series, and that's Child 44's biggest problem. It's rare that a movie more than two hours long is criticized for being too short, but there's just so much crammed in, and the speedy clip of events doesn't permit the audience to gain a deep empathy for anyone involved. There's a wasted opportunity here to allow Leo Demidov to become someone like Don Draper or Tony Soprano, a character whose foibles and virtues slowly reveal themselves over seasons and become as layered as the underpainting on a Russian miniature. No one can accuse Child 44 of being short on excitement, but maybe theaters aren't where its intrigues deserve to unfold.