1/29/11

Case 39: been there, seen that

When overworked case-manager, Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) decides to get personally involved in the life of one of her clients, she gets more than she bargained for.  Any social worker worth his or her salt knows that the primary rule is to NEVER take your work home with you.  What a shame nobody told Emily this.

In a nutshell, Case 39 is a predictable thriller with some surprisingly good scares, and mostly decent acting.  However that does not take away from the fact that so much of this movie feels like so many other films of a similar ilk.  Suffice to say, if you've seen Orphan, or The Bad Seed, you'll probably have the plot figured out after the first twenty minutes.  Also, you will note blatant ripoffs from films like The Haunting, Candyman, The Omen, and The Ring.

I did like the actress who played uber brat, Lilith (Jodelle Ferland), this dark haired moppet seemed to  transition from waif to she-beast with mercurial ease.
It was also a lot of fun to watch Bradley Cooper play a psychologist who strips his clothes off whilst battling phantom hornets.
Finally, as a real life social worker, I had to laugh when Zellweger's character bitches to her boss about being buried in cases when he hands her the 39th file.  HA! I'll match that caseload and raise her an additional 350 files.  Amateur!

4 comments:

Prospero said...

I've been a fan of Jodelle Ferland for a long time (she's absolutely brilliant in Terry Gilliam's much hated "Tideland") and can't wait to see what she does when she's older.

Matt-suzaka said...

Seeing as I find Zellweger to be wicked annoying with her whole: "I look like the beast from the Beauty and the Beast TV series from the 80s," and with how predictable it looked, which would be the case as you mention, I figured Case 39 would be a steaming pile. However, when I found out that Christian Alvart directed it, my interest was raised a little.

I really enjoyed his Sci-Fi/Horror film, Pandorum, and I have heard great things about his other film, Antibodies (which feature a naked man on the cover!), so I'm not surprised to hear Case 39 wasn't completely terrible. I may still check it out, but I don't know if I can sit through Zellweger making that "I'm about to puke up seafood" face for an entire film!

Jack Veasey said...

I love evil child movies. I've even been known to re-watch the terrible "Kathy's Curse," probably one of the worst examples of the genre. Now that I know there's one I haven't seen, I absolutely must see it ASAP. Thanks for alerting me!

Of course, I feel the same way about any movie with carnivorous fish...I'm kind of a fetishistic horror fan!

DTG Sakalasooriya said...

CASE 39 was a little different than I expected it would have been much better if it had left the viewer wondering a few things but it doesn't