Movie Review - 'Case 39'

Case 39 Starring Renee Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper Directed by Christian Alvart Rated R

Emily (Renee Zellweger) is a Child Services worker who's already got more cases than she can handle when her boss (Adrian Lester) asks her to take on a 39th. Since Emily is played by Renee Zellweger, she squints her eyes, purses her lips, and buckles down, because she's got the heart, gosh darn it, to take on any challenge, and this one is no different.

She investigates the titular Case 39, a cute little girl named Lilly (Jodelle Ferland) who it seems is being tormented by her parents. You can tell that the parents are crazy because they constantly glare with wide eyes; the mother (Kerry O'Malley) has a bleach-white face with big zits on it, and the father (Callum Keith Rennie) is perpetually filthy and refuses to speak to Emily directly. But once Emily rescues the girl from her oh-so-evil parents, and takes the unprecedented step of taking Lilly into her own care, she starts to think that maybe those parents weren't so crazy afterall.

Luckily, she has the help of her child-psychologist platonic best friend (Bradley Cooper) and her gruff-cop confidant (Ian McShane). But the thing is, the three of them don't do much investigating at all. There's no story to unravel in Case 39; the premise is simply that there's evil, and it's going to get them, and we're going to watch it do so.

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Trailer - Renée Zellweger Looks to Close 'Case 39'

Hey, wow, it's Renée Zellweger. Remember all the movies she used to get? That's been a while, huh? Her last live-action film to top $50 million was Cinderella Man, which is five years old. It was a quick, unmistakable fall out of favor.

I don't know if she'll ever get her old audience back - probably not; that's just the way it goes - but she's branching out now, and while it might be overdue, it could pay off a little bit. Certainly, doing a thriller is better business at this point than another dopey rom-com like New in Town. Her latest is Case 39, one of those haunted child movies that co-stars Bradley Cooper. If that sub-genre's not dead in the minds of audiences, then this trailer could be an effective attention grabber. A lot depends on the child. She's freaky. And then, of course, there are the obligatory insects coming out of orifices. That's a classic.

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Zellweger to Put on Fat Suit for 'Bridget Jones 3'

You can probably hear the gasp of desperation from wherever you are, but as we reported a couple months ago, Renee Zellweger will return for a third Bridget Jones movie. Even though I'm a pretty harsh critic of romantic comedies, it's only because there are so few good ones, or even examples that show genuine heart and thought and aren't completely interchangeable with other movies in the genre. The first Bridget Jones is very good, loaded with good performances and more than its share of memorable scenes. The second one is a walk off a cliff.

So, there's something here that could work, theoretically. I mean, the series is batting .500, which if you're a glass-half-fuller, is something to build on. We certainly don't need another installment, but Zellweger's flagging career could use a boost. But if she were really serious, wouldn't she pack on the pounds again? The Daily News quotes a source that told a British magazine, "Renee will be wearing a fat suit in the third film, as it took her a while to lose the weight last time." Adds the source, "She's also thinking about the effect quickly putting on and then losing 30 pounds has on her body."

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'Bridget Jones' Goes Back for Thirds

It happens from time to time that a bad sequel completely eclipses a good original film, and that was certainly the case with Bridget Jones. The Edge of Reason was just awful, but audiences around the world still made it a smash, even though American crowds stayed away, by and large.

But perhaps because the sequel somehow raked in a quarter-billion in foreign markets, Working Title has announced a third movie in the series. The company says Renee Zellweger will be back, although what option does she really have? Her career has stalled ever since The Edge of Reason and this is one of her signature roles.

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Trailer - Renee Zellweger's New Thriller 'Case 39'

Later this year, German director Christian Alvart has two thrillers coming to theaters. Pandorum looks impeccably intriguing, at least based on the trailer. And the second movie is Case 39, which stars Renee Zellweger as a social worker who saves a young girl from her parents...but it was the parents who needed saving.

There's a new trailer with Zellweger and co-star Bradley Cooper, who appears to have an untimely demise in his future. It's a creepy kid movie, and those are usually a dime a dozen. So I'll be cautiously optimistic just because Pandorum looks so good. Check out the trailer and judge for yourself:

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