Case 39 (2009)

USA

105 mins.

Directed by Christian Alvart

Starring: Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, Ian McShane, Jodelle Ferland

Why was Case 39 shelved for so long after it was finished? About two-and-a-half years after it was supposed to be released, it arrives silently in the night. That's a much more interesting mystery than what ends up shaking loose from this tame, afraid-to-offend-or-shock thriller. 

Made before director Christian Alvart's next film, Pandorum, Case 39 presents the one true stain on Alvart's record. Pandorum was a great little sci-fi/horror hybrid while his first film, Antibodies, is a must-see German thriller. It's still better than a good number of cinematic posers all standing in the same line, but it's also nowhere near as good as numerous others.

The basic gist of C-39 is that Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) is a harried social worker with a stacked desk full of cases. One particular case concerns a girl (Jodelle Ferland) apparently living with homicidal parents. Emily succeeds in getting Lilith away from those crazy parents and has them locked up in a loony bin. She eventually takes in poor Lilith after the little kid proves to be extremely persuasive, callling her Mommy and all that. Soon, people start dying in weird ways. Double homicides, suicides; all the flavors of the death rainbow. You don't have to be a Jeopardy finalist to know exactly why the parents are trying to kill the kid if you've seen at least two or three or movies like Case 39.

Bradley Cooper is around as Zellweger's "friend" who's always trying to get in her pants but he comes up with witty flirty banter so it's all totally not creepy or anything. Ian McShane comes along for the ride as Emily's manly cop friend who tells her to be careful. What movie would be complete without an older, wiser pal to tell you to watch your step? I love McShane, even in mediocre or bad movies, simply for the fact that I can pretend Al Swearengen has escaped 19th century Deadwood and has survived long enough to become a supporting actor in middling quality Hollywood movies.

One of the few things that is actually decent about the movie is that Jodelle Ferland, the titular case subject Liltih, is quite good and even a little creepy. She shares a scene with Cooper's character that is the lone great scene in the film, making it all the more disappointing to see it all fall apart immediately afterward.

What is Lilith? Is she part of a kid serial killer mafia? Is she pulling an Orphan? What about being a straight up demon? Maybe she's a Kardashian. You'll probably figure it out before the filmmakers wanted you to, so don't expect a shocking reveal or twist. When people start dying, it'll make sense to you rather quickly.

As a matter of fact, the ending is one of the weakest parts of the whole movie. You know how in most movies of this ilk, the good guy tries to kill the bad guy with a certain destructive method? Like setting the house on fire or driving the car into a body of water? Call it a last act of desperation. Pretty overused, right? Well, when Emily tries to rid herself of the very persistent Lilith, she goes for something totally original. She burns the house down and drives her car into a body of water. Why go for one cliche when you can slap together two? I say go for it.

And that pretty much sums up Case 39. A nice-looking, fake-scary cliche of a film. I'm pretty sure it's not Christian Alvart's fault. I'd bet the script is the prime culprit. Alvart did the best he could do with the material he had. It's just not an all around great story to begin with. You can make a great script bad, but it's pretty damn hard to make a bad script great. At least that's what a very wise person once said.

There was a decent thriller in here at one point, but writer Ray Wright (also responsible for adapting the lame American remake of Pulse/Kairo) simply doesn't know how to make something like this form a cohesive narrative from start to finish. The performances aren't terrible and neither is the camera work. It's just that it's really not very interesting or engaging. Here's hoping Alvart can come up with something at least as good as Pandorum next time around.

On a side note, you can really tell how long this has been on the shelf by Bradley Cooper's definition of a supporting performance, back when he was a long way from being the semi-leading man he is today.

lMC