Movie Review: "Case 39"
Franck Tabouring
Seen on: October 2, 2010
The players: Director: Christian Alvart, Writer: Ray Wright, Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper
Facts of interest: It cost $27 million to make.
The plot: The film follows a social worker whose life spins out of control when she takes care of a young girl with a dark secret.
Our thoughts: Christian Alvart’s “Case 39” should never have been opened. Filled with cheap scare tactics, a messy story, boring characters and dry performances all around, this completely unnecessary horror flick isn’t quite worthy of a theatrical release. It doesn’t add anything to the already exhausted genre of horror movies about demon children, and it sure as heck fails to deliver decent suspense.
I’m still not sure why Renee Zellweger decided to sign up for this project, but she’s in charge of the lead and plays Emily Jenkins, a determined social worker who gets quite attached to Lilith (Jodelle Ferland), a young girl she recently saved from her abusive parents. In fact, Emily likes the kid so much that she asks for custody until she can be placed into a suitable foster family. So far, so good…
Although things seem glorious at first, Emily soon realizes that Lilith is kind of a weird young girl. She’s quite a dab hand at scaring adults and uses awkward vocabulary to express herself, and every time she doesn’t get what she wants, she starts to freak out. Oh, and next thing you know, all sorts of people Emily has been in contact with start dying without an explanation…
By now, I’m sure you figured out where this is going. Something’s clearly wrong with Lilith, and Emily, the movie’s heroine, launches an investigation to figure out what the hell happened to this kid. Don’t expect any big surprises though, because “Case 39” is as predictable as it gets, and it clearly doesn’t try hard enough to scare its audiences. The usual cheap tricks just don’t cut it anymore.
Although “Case 39” manages to create an overall menacing atmosphere that occasionally helps move along the disastrous story, the film still suffers from a poorly executed concept. I certainly don’t mind watching yet another movie about a killer child as long as it brings something new to the table, but Alvart’s film just doesn’t have what it takes to captivate my attention.
Zellweger’s character makes some stupid decisions that pretty much strip her of all the credibility she had when we first meet her, and the child’s behavior shows little progress throughout the movie as well. Sure, it all gets louder and more violent as me move along, but nothing makes sense in this horror flick. I didn’t even manage to remotely care for any of the characters in this thing. It’s that superficial.
I also don’t see Zellweger as the right choice for this kind of role. I understand her recent films didn’t exactly score big in terms of reviews and revenue, but signing on to a bad horror movie is certainly not the right way to resurrect a career. The film also stars Bradley Cooper, and he doesn’t belong in this mess either. Like I said, “Case 39” would probably look better on cable TV or direct-to-DVD release.
Freaky quote: "I have bad thoughts." - Jodelle Ferland
The final word: I find it hard to talk about this film in detail because it’s just too simplistic and monotonous to get excited about. The production values are there and the film could’ve been much better with a different script, but in the end, this is just another one of those underdeveloped Hollywood losers trying to trick people into buying a ticket. I recommend you skip this one.
Article by Franck Tabouring
Reader Comments (1)
The movie "Case 39" was a little creepy to me. I seen the movie once and only once but I never will watch it again. Jodelle Ferland is an amazing little girl and actress. She played this role perfectly to me. I'm glad I was able to rent this movie through Blockbuster. As an employee for DISH I'll tell you that we are giving 3 months free of Blockbuster to new customers that come to DISH. You get unlimited movies, games and TV shows through the mail and 5 in-store exchanges with the new promotion. http://bit.ly/m8kwjf