TIFF 2020 film review: 'The Kid Detective'

(Image courtesy of TIFF)

In case you ever wondering what Encyclopedia Brown would look like as a weathered, embittered middle-aged man, it would look something like the comedy, noir-mystery 'The Kid Detective' (an Industry Selects entry of the 45th Toronto International Film Festival).

In short: Once celebrated as the Willowbrook's best detective, Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) is now a middle-aged man who solves trivial cases between hangovers - when he finally gets his first real case: a murder. Also stars Sophie Nélisse ('The Book Thief') and Sarah Sutherland.

'Kid Detective' resembles a dark episode of the 'Hardy Boys' ... if the boy detectives were routinely drunk and they constantly disappointed their parents. Brody exudes a youthful wariness - the kind of hard-boiled edge that's practically a hallmark of noir detectives. It's just weird to see such cynicism in a man in his early 30s. The movie takes the usual private eye formula, but twists each element just a little bit. Instead of the gritty big city, Abe spends time solving small-time mysteries in small town where everyone knows the baker, the candy man and who Abe Applebaum is. His "girl Friday" is an apathetic goth girl who doesn't take her boss seriously. And after decades of solving the mystery of missing pets and piggy banks, Abe is haunted by a grim case he couldn't solve as a pre-teen.

Identity will always be one of storytelling's most powerful themes, and 'Kid Detective' finds a man trying to reconcile who he was with his current life. The 'Kid Detective' perfectly sums up how the townspeople see Abe and (to some degree) how Abe sees himself. No one takes him seriously - even he's incredulous when his "client" approaches him with the murder case. Abe is simultaneously a naturally gifted sleuth, and woefully unequipped to solve the murder of a high school student. Years of solving small time "cases" hasn't prepared Abe for dealing with biker gangs or drug dealers - and most of this strategies are dated.

For a film that's just over 90 minutes long, 'Kid Detective' has some excess to trim. There's a whole "hiding in the closet" segment that takes up more real estate in the movie than it should. Like all detective stories, the movie hums along nicely so long as the detective is digging deeper and deeper into the mystery. The superfluous sections of the movie are nice, but they don't really pay off to any significance.

Final verdict: Disguised as a pulp detective story, 'Kid Detective' uses the mystery genre to force a man-child to face the bleak darkness of the small town that once admired him.

Score: 3.5/5

'The Kid Detective' is part of the 2020 TIFF Industry Selects slate. This dramedy is not yet rated and has a running time of 97 minutes.