The Children Act (2017)

Directed by: Richard Eyre | 105 minutes | drama | Actors: Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Ben Chaplin, Fionn Whitehead, Honey Holmes, Jason Watkins, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rosie Cavaliero, Anthony Calf, Rupert Vansittart, Nicholas Jones, Dominic Carter, Toni Beard, Eileen Walsh, Andrew Havill, Karl farrer

Legal dilemmas and human drama come together in ‘The Children Act’, based on the book of the same name by Ian McEwan (who also wrote the screenplay). Richard Eyre (“Iris,” “Notes on a Scandal”) directs Emma Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility,” “Love Actually”) in a gripping drama about a judge who must decide the fate of a 17-year-old boy who refuses blood transfusion because of his faith.

In ‘The Children Act’ we get to know Fiona Maye (Thompson), a hardworking judge who regularly judges harrowing cases that are the subject of much public debate. She takes the case of Adam Henry (Fionn Whitehead from ‘Dunkirk’), a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who refuses a blood transfusion for religious reasons. Adam is still a minor, so according to the law he is not allowed to decide for himself. Maye must decide whether his wish will be respected or whether the hospital will be allowed to perform the transfusion against his will. During the treatment, Maye takes an unusual step: she decides to visit the boy herself in the hospital. There, a bond is formed that has consequences that extend far beyond the courtroom.

Meanwhile, we also see that Maye’s marriage is on the brink of death: she is so busy with her work that her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci, known for ‘The Lovely Bones’, ‘The Pelican Brief’, ‘Road to Perdition’) feels that they don’t know each other anymore. Bluntly lost, he openly announces that he will be cheating on him. Not quite sure what to do with it, Maye loses herself in Adam’s case. Ultimately, it also has unexpected consequences for her marriage.

‘The Children Act’ is a film about life – what do we live for, and what is life worth to us? Adam’s willingness to die for his faith also seems to make Maye think more and more about her own life, although her special friendship with Adam prevails. Although Whitehead and Tucci have strong personalities, Thompson is the absolute star and pillar of the story. We see Maye’s drive and emotional distance from everything and everyone around her turn into emotion, devastation and deep sadness, all for that one boy who has so much to live for, but is willing to die at the same time and later finds an unlikely girlfriend in the judge who had to decide his fate.

What did help ‘The Children Act’ was a bit more dynamics in the story – literature is really a different medium than film, and occasionally it takes revenge that writer McEwan also worked on the screenplay for the film. In some scenes too little happens, and some plot twists leave quite slowly. Nevertheless, ‘The Children Act’ is a successful combination of court and marriage drama, with an Oscar-worthy role by Emma Thompson.