Case 39
Review
by Anthony Morris
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Case 39
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The biggest mistake you can make with a genre picture is the one that Case 39 makes right off the bat:
Never assume your audience doesn't know what's going on...
So
when this film spends the first twenty minutes or so trying to persuade
us that Rene Zellweger's social worker is doing the right thing by
stopping some seemingly crazed parents from sticking their daughter in
an oven, that is twenty minutes the audience spends fidgeting in their
seats.
Why?
Because this is obviously an evil kid
movie, and all anyone watching an evil kid movie wants to see is an
evil kid - not a whole bunch of boring set-up.
The magic of
the "evil kid" genre is that it doesn't need any set-up: no-one ever
suspects that the kid is an evil killer until the bodies start piling
up.
Fortunately, after a while people do start breaking their
own necks in terror or clubbing their parents to death with a tire
iron, but by then it is too little too late.
It doesn't help
that the supernatural stuff is fairly generic, and the performances
aren't exactly striking either despite a decent cast (Bradley Cooper,
Ian McShane).
The Orphan did all this a whole lot better earlier this year; if you need an evil kid fix, wait for that on DVD.
1 out
of 5
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Case 39
Australian release: 5th November,
2009
Official
Site: Case 39
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Kerry O'Malley
Director: Christian Alvart
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