Case 39 (2009) [Blu-ray]
Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Academy Award® winner Renee Zellweger stars in this terrifying, supernatural thriller about a social worker who has been assigned the unusual and disturbing case of Lillith Sullivan...a girl with a strange and mysterious past. When Emily (Renee Zellweger) opens her home in an attempt to help Lillith, it turns into a deadly nightmare she may not survive. Co-starring Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), Case 39 is a heart-stopping chiller with startling surprises that lead to a shocking and sinister ending.

Storyline: "Case 39" centers on an idealistic social worker who saves an abused 10-year-old girl from her parents only to discover that the girl is not as innocent as she thinks. Written by Unknown



Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, January 9, 2011 Are you scared? You ought to be. --- It's one of the worst kinds of movies, and also one of the most frustrating. It's a movie that starts out well enough -- sure, it doesn't have the look and feel of a classic or even great endeavor, but it seems like it might be a passable psychological Drama -- but then the wheels come off, revealing a terribly goofy, overly trite, thematically empty-headed, and emotionally vacant experience that panders to the lowest common denominator and takes itself so seriously that the flaws only become more and more evident with every passing frame. That's Case 39, a long-delayed "Horror" movie that shows a glimmer of promise in its opening act, only to fall apart by the second and continue on in some self-important, "I'm the next-best-thing" sort of vibe on through its terribly inept finale. Low on scares, long on boredom, and built around an unbelievable premise made all the worse through a series of ridiculous plot points, Case 39 is nothing more than a low-rent wannabe that manages to impress in short spurts with a bit of style and few flashes of decent performances from its cast. Otherwise, this one has nothing to offer.

An overworked social worker named Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger, Jerry Maguire) is given another case file -- wait for it, yup, dubbed "case 39" -- to add to her stack of pending work. She gives it a once-over and finds herself drawn to the life of little Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), a girl who is said to be socially withdrawn and showing signs of neglect, both of which are impacting her grades at school. Jenkins visits with Lilith and her uncooperative parents who deny they're doing anything wrong in their relationship with their daughter. Jenkins nevertheless cultivates a burgeoning relationship with the young girl, telling Lilith to reach out to her if she ever feels threatened. Lilith calls Jenkins one night, obviously frightened, and the social worker, along with Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane), arrive at Lilith's home just in time to save her from being cooked in the family's oven. Lilith is ultimately placed in Jenkins' care. The two quickly form a mother-daughter bond, but it soon becomes apparent to Jenkins that Lilith is no ordinary girl; she's something much more and much more dangerous that threatens to tear apart every fabric of Jenkins' world.

Case 39 was, according to reports, originally slated for a fall 2008 release but was pushed back over two years, and has hit home video about three months following it's blink-and-miss-it theatrical run. There's all the clues needed to piece together the obvious: this just isn't a very good movie. It's the sort of film that goes almost completely unnoticed, seen by few and trashed by most who sit through it, a wannabe Horror/Thriller that has its moments but is ultimately an invisible -- not to mention miserable -- movie that strives to be good but instead makes a fool of itself through most of the runtime. The film's strengths are few but commendable; Director Christian Alvart's (Pandorum) picture sports a gritty, pale, almost hopeless texture that helps reinforce what semblance of creepiness exists in a few frames, but his steady direction can't make up for what is an otherwise dull and tired premise. The movie works well enough through its opening act, playing as a surprisingly compelling Drama about a wrecked home life and parents who seem bent on harming their child, but things take a turn for the worse when the film ventures down a supernatural/spiritual path. The film's second and third acts play with a staggering level of irrelevancy and eye-rolling foolishness that's impossible to take serious and even more of a chore to watch.

Case 39, to its credit, builds a compelling, almost believable relationship between the Emily Jenkins and Lilith Sullivan characters, but things fall apart as the movie takes a turn for the supernatural. Both Jodelle Ferland and, to a lesser extent, Renée Zellweger perform admirably enough; Ferland's effort ranges from good-to-great throughout, but Zellweger's takes a steady nosedive right alongside the script, a script that starts out strongly but plummets into dull and, finally, absurd territory by the final minutes. Ferland is the real highlight here, playing her part with a charming and sweet innocence but slowly turning on a darker, far more sinister front as the film progresses. Zellweger manages to give her character a sweetness and sincerity in the opening act, but as she falls deeper into paranoia and begins to piece together the true story of Lilith Sullivan, the performance begins to suffer, culminating in a ridiculous moment where she loses control and lets loose a string of vulgarities at work. The point seems to be to show that she's crumbling under the stress, but the scene just plays as goofy and meaningless, the same of which can be said of the film. Ian McShane and Bradley Cooper turn in fair supportive efforts, but it's when the latter finds himself in an extended scene featuring swarming CGI insects that the film really loses its audience and turns from decent Chiller to absurd time killer.

Case 39 isn't the worst movie out there, but it's hard to find another one that starts off as well as this one does, only to end up as a laughably bad flop with almost no redeeming qualities outside of Jodelle Ferland's performance. A movie that took over two years to hit theaters after it was in the can, Case 39 is a classic example of a movie gone wrong somewhere along the way from conception to completion. It's a surprise it even earned a theatrical run; direct to video better suits a movie of this caliber. To Paramount's credit, Case 39's Blu-ray release isn't half bad. The technical presentation is fine but the supplements are short and in standard definition. This one is only worth renting, and even then only when most everything else at the store has been picked over.

[CSW] -2.8- The story is both well acted as well as engaging and scary. Although the plot is a bit trite it none the less holds your interest from beginning to end. As a straight to video movie it wasn't quite tight enough to make the main stream but still if you want to be "creeped out for 90 minutes" this will do it and it is definitely worth renting.
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box motion codes but D-Box intelligent vibration added greatly to the tension in this movie.

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