Child 44

I must admit that I was a little disappointed with the film for it's confusing telling of the story. The film is based on a novel which I have never read, and as I was watching it, it was evident that the story had a lot of holes in it and at times the sequence of events just did not make sense.

As a devotee of Soviet history I expected this movie, from what I had read, to be a look at the treatment of orphan children under Stalin's regime. I guess I didn't read closely enough.

First off, if you want to see a movie about the actual story Child 44 is extremely loosely based on, see Citizen X. That movie is far more graphic in the detail it shows of the murdered children and follows the story and timeline of the actual events.

If there is one thing sure then it is that I never saw a bad movie with Tom Hardy in it. Or maybe I missed it.

A best-selling book loosely based on one of the maddest true life serial killers ever. How could a film adaptation with Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman go wrong?

I was surprised to find the major Hollywood studio movie "Child 44" in the Blu-ray section at my local library, because I hadn't even heard of it before. Doing some pre-viewing research, I discovered that the studio more or less threw the movie away, giving it a small and not well publicized theatrical release.

I did manage to get through it all, but there are times when the director, producer, writer, and actors have something in mind, and yet it never comes to fruition. I often think of the execs having to sit through this and try to get this kinda of film motivation for the public to go and see it, buy it and rent it.

This movie is entirely a depiction of the Stalin-era from the inside and all the professional reviews I read miss this, which is the very point of the film. It is banned in Russia for a reason...

Absolutely loved this movie. I don't understand the negative reviews, unless there are a bunch of butt-hurt Russian trolls on here (wouldn't be surprised, frankly, since they are pretty much everywhere else on the internet).