A disgraced member of the military police investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union.
It packs a little too much in but this is a pleasingly pulpy thriller which also passes effective comment on the horrors of life in a country where original thought was treason. Child 44 is ambitious, striking and gloriously gripping.
While an eye-catching call sheet saves it from the movie gulag, this unfortunately so-so adaptation of a far richer novel does feel a little like the cinematic equivalent of eating your bodyweight in kasha.
A brave, slow-burn of a thriller, Child 44 will intrigue more than it will inspire but Hardy fans will still get their fix before revving up for Mad Max.
Child 44 aims both to be both a star-driven, mainstream thriller and a meditation on the violence and bad faith of the Stalin era but it succeeds as neither.
Tom Hardy heads an international cast (all speaking with hyeavy Ryussian accyents) in a dull and stodgy adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s KGB page-turner.
By the time you reach its manic, hysterical final confrontation, you’ve already found yourself emitting several stifled giggles.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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