There are very few things which we can say – you’d never understand – and it will be completely true. Most things we can at least put ourselves in the shoes of other people, but not everything. One of those things that creates a deep divide comes with children. If you don’t have a child it’s hard to fully grasp what it is like to see them hurt, sad, angry, or to ponder what it might mean to lose them. You can imagine it, put your head in that space, but to really reckon with it is going to a dark, dark place.
“The Child” takes you to that place, and leaves you there.
“The Child” is the story of a husband and wife facing the very worst news they could imagine. Their son has been in a devastating accident and is at the edge of death. Desperate for anything that may save his life, the couple head off into the wilds of a neighboring nation to find hope, but in so doing they cross lines that they can never return from, and must risk everything, even themselves for that distant glimmer to save their son.
This is a dark film.
“The Child” is well filmed, well acted, and full of dread. The film tackles not only the story of a family dealing with the mortality of a child, but the lengths a parent can be willing to go to save them. It raises some awful questions while showing you a reality that exists in too many places in the world.
There is a twist in what is a pretty straightforward film that works, and completes the circle for the story when things wrap up, but it also feels a little extraneous. I like it, but I think it needed to be fleshed out a little more to give it more impact. That’s the one quibble I have with the film.
This is an eerie, haunting movie, and one which will haunt you, especially if you have a child, or children. This is the kind of methodical, atmosphere drenched film many people lament there not being much of these days. Well, here you go, friend.
TL;DR: A mean-spirited chiller that will make you question how far you’d go to save your child.
3.75 out of 5
