The Child in Time (2017)

Directed by: Julian Farino | 89 minutes | drama | Actors: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Campbell Moore, Saskia Reeves, Andrea Hall, Jim Creighton, Beatrice White, Rosa-Marie Lewis, Franc Ashman, Anna Madeley, John Hopkins, Elliot Levey, Lucy Liemann, Natasha Brown, Laurence Spellman, Richard Durden, Geraldine Alexander, Chase Collardo

It will happen to you. You ‘just’ go shopping with your four-year-old daughter. You’re checking out at the cash register and suddenly she’s gone. That’s what happens to Stephen Lewis (a wonderful role by Benedict Cumberbatch), a celebrated children’s author, and his wife Julie (Kelly Macdonald from “Boardwalk Empire”).

‘The Child in Time’ is about the unthinkable for parents: the kidnapping of a child. Because, of course, there is a before and an after. And in ‘the after’ feelings such as despair, powerlessness and helplessness fight for precedence. Julie and Stephen then keep trying together, but that proves increasingly difficult. One, Stephen, persists in his quest. Logical, because he feels responsible, jointly and severally guilty. How can he ever forgive himself? The other, Julie, suffers apathetically at the loss. Eventually they grow apart and live separately. When some time has passed, they carefully meet each other again.

In between is also the story of Stephen’s best friend, the intelligent but super sensitive Charles Darke (Stephen Campbell Moore from ‘The History Boys’), who is gradually losing his mind. With his wife Thelma he moves to a wooded area to escape the hustle and bustle of his life and the responsible government job. There he tries in vain to relive his childhood (playing cowboy and Indian, climbing trees).

In flashbacks we see the family before the disappearance of daughter Kate. Cheerful images, memories that Stephen especially tries to cling to. “Because,” says his mother, “as long as you remember her, she will live.”

‘The Child in Time’ is a beautiful film about grief and loss, with many scenes in which we become part of this unimaginable tragedy. Much remains unsaid, as the protagonists struggle with their emotions. Is there a handbook that tells you how to deal with this? New. So Stephen and Julie do their best to keep their daughter ‘alive’, no matter how difficult it may be.

‘The Child in Time’ is the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 1987 book of the same name, hailed by critics as ‘his masterpiece’. As in the book, director Julian Farino tries to imagine time as relative. Without structure, almost liquid. The flashbacks can be interpreted as time travel, because Stephen sometimes sees himself as a child, in a subway and at a pub. It is a film that is moving and thought provoking. Not an easy film, but one that ultimately manages to make you feel hopeful. What would you do if your child was kidnapped? Just take a look at it. Unthinkable and almost impossible to do, right? It will make you appreciate Deep Purple’s mega hit even more…