Caso 39

The person that social worker Renee Zellweger is investigating in Case 39 is Jodelle Ferland an innocent little girl seemingly who seems to be crying out for intervention. The humanitarian instincts of Zellweger necessary for her occupation are aroused and she and cop Ian McShane go to the house just in time to rescue the little girl from her parents, Callum Keith Rennie and Kerry McCallum from roasting her in their oven, the kind of horrific crime that every now and then you see splashed across your evening news.

Zellweger breaks the usual bounds of professional distance when she takes it on herself to take in the child. Once she does the little girl proves not quite what she originally seems and literally sucks the humanitarianism out of her.

This will go completely over the people who are not Star Trek fans, but young Ms. Ferland reminded me so much of an evil Talosian. If you will recall in that famous pilot for Star Trek, the Talosians are blessed with the power of illusion, they can make you see and hear all kinds of things that are not there. With that they can trick you into stuff. There not evil people however, but Captain Christopher Pike when he's captured by them has to learn their secret in order to triumph.

That's what Renee has to do, overcome the power of illusion. How it all works out for her is what you have to see Case 39 for.

As for the film itself, Case 39 is a cut above a lot of these horror films, but it could have used considerable improvement in the storytelling.

Case 39 (2009)

The clever plot isn't quite clever enough to keep you going through the whole movie, but almost. And both Renee Zellwegger as the passionate and trapped social worker and Jodelle Ferland as the adorable but mysterious child are quite amazing. Both are actors at the best of their powers, Zellwegger limited only by the role and the writing, which is very good but not quite flexible enough to let her show as many of those perplexed and touching nuances she is so good at (seen equally in "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Nurse Betty"). But it's possible Ferland has the role of her life here. She's not only playing a precocious child, but is clearly a precocious young actress, bright, expressive, surprising, and not merely cute. By the way she was fifteen when it was filmed, even though she looks and acts, in most ways, like she's ten.

You can't ignore the plot, of course, since this is a plot driven movie saved by two great actresses, not the other way around. And the story is a little bit of a formula with a twist. The twist is good, but it is singular. Eventually we are carried from a personal and social drama with some evil people to a supernatural drama. It's here where things get scariest, but also where things wobble slightly in terms of believability or logic, if logic has any place here. For example, once the antagonist is shown to have really limitless powers of some kind (possibly imaginary), why does this person not have the power to just kill someone out and out? There is dangled the idea that this bad force depends on fear to proceed, but this isn't developed clearly, or maybe you have to see it twice to get.

On the other hand, if you just go with the flow, it's really increasingly scary. There are some scenes, like the woman in the hospital room that turns into a kind of large oven, that are chilling and really well done. Certainly Zellwegger's character is able to find the outlines of logic as she tries to survive by outsmarting the situation, and we're on her side. Eventually it comes to a dramatic climax, and it's pretty exciting. A sleeper, for sure.

In this film, a dedicated social worker who works to protect minors will come across a case that initially appears to be violence and domestic abuse. She is not sure what is really going on in that family, but her instinct and experience tell her that there is something very wrong with those parents. And the suspicions are confirmed when, alerted by the girl, she finds her parents ready to kill her in the oven. Months later, she obtains the girl's provisional custody, but just a few weeks of living together will be enough for her to begin to see that this girl may not be as innocent as she looks, and that something truly sinister is going on with her.

Horror films in which children are the central element of the plot are nothing new. We had classics like "Village of the Damned", "The Omen" and the entire "Children of the Corn" franchise, not to mention the more recent films like "The Orphan". However, they are still delicious and appealing, when they are really well done. The film has an interesting story, which unfolds at a good pace, without twists, subterfuges or stratagems to amplify the suspense, and everything suffers from a certain degree of predictability. However, the film benefits from the good construction of the characters, especially the protagonist, a social worker who soon conquers us with her dedication and good intentions, and holds our attention until the end.

In fact, the excellent performances of Renee Zellweger and young Jodelle Ferland are essential for the quality and strength of the final product. Zellweger had already shown us, in several previous works, to be an actress of great talent and versatility, but she manages to take the film on her back, while Ferland was able to overcome her inexperience and youth to give us a colossal job. For a child actress, she even looks like an adult, as threatening and calculating as she can be. The film also features the work of Ian McShane and Bradley Cooper, safe bets on the supporting characters.

The film is not particularly remarkable in terms of production values and technical issues. Cinematography is standard, but it works quite well and is effective, adapting well and helping to build the light tension felt during the film. Some scenes in particular (such as the sinking car scene or the fire) were brilliantly shot, but there is a greater sense of danger. The sets and costumes are everything we could hope for, without surprises or major problems. The editing and the soundtrack do their job discreetly.

The beginning intrigued me. What is the entity in question, and why is it tormenting Lilith, and her parents before her? Why do the parents blame Lilith when she is clearly a victim? This is the main thing Case 39 has going for it: you won't know at first what type of movie it will end up being. Later in the film, though, it has chosen its bag of clichés and sticks to them. Which bag? Ah, that would be telling.

This being said, the common devices director Alvart chooses for the film still work, and Ferland (Lilith) does a good job in a demanding role for a girl who was twelve or thirteen years old when the movie was completed, on 2007. It was finally released in October of 2010, the month of Ferland's sixteenth birthday.

Why you should see it You enjoy things, other than your annoying upstairs neighbor, that go "bump" in the night. You still find Zellweger to be as adorable as she was the first time she said "you had me at hello," and not nearly as annoying as that line became upon its 300th repetition. You like your paranormal phenomena to surround pale, creepy kids.

Why you shouldn't see it You're terribly afraid of hornets, heights, shotguns, ovens, carving knives, bodies of water, forks, and blunt objects, and you don't feel up to confronting all of these phobias within the space of two hours.

This was a trippy movie that was pretty intense. Most of all I wanted to know what was up with the little girl. There was clearly something not right about her, but was she another Samara from The Ring?

I'm not a Zellweger fan by any means, but she was decent in this movie. Stay tuned to the very end and you will be rewarded.