Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Kid Detective Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 14, 2021

The Kid Detective takes a compelling look at a man who, as a boy, was a star within his own community, praised for his keen detective skills but who, in adulthood, has not aged so gracefully, matured so deeply, and honed his skills so fully as his past may have suggested would be the case. The film explores his psyche through the prism of his most challenging case yet but for the audience the real reward is not in how he pieces together clues but rather how he goes about his business, how the mystery comes to define and, perhaps, redefine, who he is. From first-time Director Evan Morgan, The Kid Detective builds a complex portrait of a man whose own soul may be the most challenging case he'll ever have to crack.

Gifted child detective Abe Applebaum (Jesse Noah Gruman) operates his own agency from his backyard treehouse, solving local mysteries that have earned him a well-deserved reputation for keen insight and natural investigative abilities. When someone chops down his treehouse-slash-office, the town, so impressed with his skills, bands together to fund him a real office downtown. Young Abe falls asleep at night wondering if he’s the smartest person in the world, building an impossibly high self-image that may very well set him up for failure as an adult. When a local 14-year-old girl is kidnapped, Abe can’t solve the case, greatly diminishing his haughty self-assessment. Some years later, now in his early 30s, Abe (Adam Brody) is still working out of the same office and trying to earn real money from an increasingly dwindling clientele. One day, a young lady named Caroline (Sophie Nélisse) approaches Abe with a request that he investigate her boyfriend’s murder. Abe accepts and finds himself working his most challenging case yet, both superficially as he finds himself facing down some of the town’s seedier elements and surprises but also as he’s forced to reevaluate himself in the process.

The film builds a vivid portrait of a troubled individual whose earliest successes have yielded little growth, personally, psychologically, or professionally alike. Once asking himself if he was the smartest person in the world, he has now stagnated, holding on to what made him famous, what made him happy, but also and perhaps most damaging, what inflated his ego to a point that's he's now teetering on the brink of irrecoverable malaise and stagnation. Abe was once a star in his community and he's still trying to live on past success rather than working towards future growth. For example, he solved a case as a child and was rewarded with free ice cream for life from a local parlor and now, two decades later, he's still taking up the aging, and now angered, owner on that deal. When Abe takes the murder case -- much to his parents' doubt and dismay -- he's out to prove that he has what it takes to tackle life's real mysteries and conduct legitimate detective work, to legitimize his name and legitimize his pursuit. He's good at what he does but now in the real world it may very well be the case that his refusal to build on his foundation has held him back. It's been that refusal to grow, not just professionally but personally, that has kept him from the greatness he once experienced and the greatness he envisioned for himself, lying awake at night as a child and believing himself to be on the easy path to adulthood stardom.

As such, Abe's psychological center and emotional growth -- be it stunted or maturing throughout the film -- are key to the film and the lead performance demands excellence if the film is going to work, if it's going to be far greater than the sum of its superficial detective work, which is admittedly entertaining in and of itself. Fortunately, Adam Brody is well up to the challenge, injecting Abe with a tangible feel of essential emotional dysfunction and personal stagnation yet demonstrating a determination to prove himself on the case. He may be a flawed, perhaps even broken, man, but he's bold in the detective work and unafraid of both physical confrontation and psychological warfare. The performance is well versed in the character's strengths and weaknesses alike. Brody understands and embraces how Abe operates, how his childhood successes and inflated ego have defined him but also how the real world within the prism of adulthood have stymied his growth and stunted his business, never mind the deep inward underpinnings that have unraveled his world view but not entirely decimated his self assessment. He's still capable and he knows it. He may not be the greatest or the smartest as he once envisioned himself to be, but he's out to prove that there's still something left in the tank, even if it's been depleted by years of self neglect and refusal to adapt himself to the shifting dynamics of childhood to adulthood.

The Kid Detective Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony's Blu-ray release of The Kid Detective holds up to scrutiny. While there are a few minor issues with the image they don't burden the picture or hold it back from a general level of high definition excellence. The primary issue is source noise which is evident right out of the gate and in a brightly lit daytime exterior at that. Such dense noise is never a constant but it's fairly jarring here. Also, the image suffers from some sporadic, albeit light, examples of compression artifacts, such as seen along a solidly colored background at the 19:36 mark. Otherwise, the digitally sourced picture looks excellent. It demonstrates a high yield for clarity and detailing, showcasing every element -- facial pores and scruff, hair, clothes, and environmental details along Abe's office or throughout town -- with faultless 1080p definition and intricacy. Color output is very good, too. This is a balanced palette with contrast dialed into a more or less natural setting. There's no warm push or desaturation at play. Colors are bold as applicable, which is frequent as much of the film takes place in bright, sunny exteriors or well-lit interiors. Clothing is the natural standout while even eyes, makeup, natural greenery, and the like hold up to scrutiny. Skin tones are authentic and black levels are refined. This is a very good all-around image from Sony.

The Kid Detective Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Kid Detective features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is rather basic yet as presented on Blu-ray in good working order. The picture is not overly concerned with complex sound design cues, favoring a generally straightforward listen that is primarily engaged along the front. Music spreads pleasantly and widely along that portion, yielding perfectly good clarity and seamless flow. Additionally, world ambience is nicely integrated, here with a little more back channel pronouncement but certainly never to an overbearing or stage dominating excess. Everything about the track is very well balanced. The track integrates a few scattered effects of more opportunistic depth and engagement, and these are presented with fine stage positioning and all of the necessary essentials for depth as well. Dialogue primarily drives the film. It is center positioned, well prioritized, and lifelike in detail.

The Kid Detective Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Kid Detective contains no film-specific supplemental content. A suite of trailers for other Sony properties may be accessed from the main menu screen, along with options to play the film and select amongst the available subtitle options. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Kid Detective Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Kid Detective paints a vivid and compelling portrait of a wounded life in search of purpose following an early peak and under the weight of a steady decline thereafter. The film is satisfyingly layered, offering explorations of a superficial mystery but, much more rewardingly, the study of a man coming to terms with himself and his place in the world. If only more films were so capably complex yet simultaneously accessible. Sony's Blu-ray is disappointingly featureless but the video and audio presentations are just fine. Highly recommended.