Child 44

Dir: Daniel Espinosa

2015

**

Daniel Espinosa's direction is nothing short of beautiful, the dark greens and rich browns capturing the era wonderfully and making the production feel authentic, suitably bleak but often stylish, such was the time and trends. The visuals, set, costumes and overall production dazzle to the point that the performances had to be perfect. Unfortunately, they were not. Tom Hardy was praised for his performance upon the film's release but personally I think it's the least enthusiastic role in his career thus far. His accent was famously distracting in The Dark Knight Rises but it's almost a picture of utter eloquence in comparison. However, Gary Oldman, a generous actor indeed, does his best to take some of the heat off for him with an equally baffling vocal performance. If it was just the dodgy accents, of which everyone is guilty to be fair, it wouldn't be too much of a problem but the lack of suspense, intrigue and mystery is the real issue with the film, a real blow to the audience, seeing as such a story should have contained (nigh, demanded) all three. It is essentially a detective film but it never once feels like one. The story becomes extremely convoluted and starts to drag fairly early on with unnecessary sub-plots and unconvincing characters and scenarios. A whodunit that becomes a who cares very rapidly with only it's visuals, that also become a bit samey, left to enjoy. Daniel Espinosa is clearly great at visuals, but with a film full of talent, he really needs to work on his people skills. Considerably less than the sum of its parts.