Wednesday Movie Night: Case 39 (2009)

Renee Zellweger is Emily Jenkins, a social worker, who comes across a horrific case of what appears to be child abuse. In a frantic attempt to give the girl instant stability after rescuing her, she welcomes the girl into her home. As soon as she opens her doors to the little girl though strange things begin befalling Emily. Bradley Cooper also stars.


Thriller? Horror? I'm not 100% which to lump it into. With thriller movies I usually look for a deeper underlining meaning, and with horror I think of pure terror. Case 39 never seems to take in either genre fully. It was entertaining, but you hope that whenever you take on a movie like this you will find something absolutely shocking that will rock everything you thought was happening in the movie. This never happens though.

Zelleweger does her usual routine of "I am a lady who has a billion cats locked in my house" acting.  Not that this is terrible, but it's just how she always comes off. She's a good actress, but I can't imagine her just being a typical woman. She has a quirky flare she can't drop no matter the role. As for the little girl, her acting varied. When she was acting normal you could tell she was "acting". If she want to conceal she is a psychotic freak better, then she needs to learn better acting skills for that. I would have been able to pick up on her strangeness way before Emily does. She is terrifying when it gets to that though, so she did well with that side.

The major disappointment was that I kept hoping for some deep revelation that you seek in suspenses like this. For example, Shutter Island, though I figured out that twist a mile away, I still liked the build up to something. When we finally get to the end of this though it is what it is. Of course, how these things were happening could never been explained with logic, but something to give the girl a bit more depth would have been ideal.

Overall, an entertaining movie, so you won't be bored watching it for most of it. When you figure out this movie isn't actually intended for anything but to perhaps terrify you, you only want to rush to the ending. Except you have another hour, and a half to go before that will even happen. You'll probably just be thinking about all the ways you could have propelled this movie more.