Reel Reviews Case 39

Title: Case 39 IMDb

DVD Release Date: January 4, 2011.

Rated: R for violence and some disturbing imagery.
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane.
Favorite Quote: None.
Storyline:
Renee Zellweger plays an overworked, but ambitious social worker. She's got 38 cases on her plate and little time for anything else. Her superior drops a file on her desk, case 39. About five minutes into the movie you realize she lives for her work and the other aspects of her life are faltering a bit. She has a date with Bradley Cooper and hear her reasonings/excuses for her lack of dating.

Emily begins to investigate her latest case, a 10 year old girl Lillith, first by visiting the family in question. From the first step into their house, she finds things peculiar and disturbing. The mother looks haggard, the little girl scared, and the father at first refuses to even speak with her. When he finally comes to the living room, he refuses to speak directly but rather through the mother. When asked why, she's told he hates speaking in anger.

When the family makes it's appearance at her office, they are the picture perfect family and Emily's superior tells her there is no case. In secret, Lillith tells Emily that she heard her parents saying they were going to send her to Hell, but later denies it. Emily gives Lillith her personal number if she ever needs it and it's a short time later when Emily receives the call that Lillith's parents are coming for her.

When Emily arrives with her police officer friend, they have to break down the door and find Lillith's parents in the kitchen having duct taped Lillith into the oven. From then on, Emily is charged with Lillith's safety, but more so with finding out why Lillith's parents were trying to kill her and why they had bolts on the inside of their doors.

Billie's Views:

The whole movie had an eerie quality, lots of greys and dreary scenary. About five minutes into the movie, I was very pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Bradley Cooper, yum! I had no idea he was in the movie and he's one of my latest crushes. Have you seen those abs? Anyway, I had a hard time believing Renee in this particular role. I'm used to her in upbeat bubbly type movies so this was a bit of a stretch, but she tried. I've seen this type of movie over and over, but it was an interesting take.

Riddle Me This: (could possibly contain spoilers, read at own risk).

I pegged that something was wrong with the little girl right away. As soon as I saw them putting her into the oven, I knew that she was evil in some way and that they were actually protecting themselves from her instead of the way around. I wish there had been a little more development as to why she was evil.

Score:
I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I would have liked a different main actress and it would have been a bit scarier. I kept seeing Renee in her Bridget Jones' role and it made it difficult to take this role seriously. I would watch it again if it was on tv. I did recommend it to a co-worker.