Case 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.