The Children Act

Accompanied, appropriately enough, by Bach piano pieces, The Children Act is an unmitigated pleasure to watch and listen to, primarily as a showcase for Thompson’s incomparable gifts as an actress.

2404d ago

In this Ian McEwan adaptation, a performance of supreme intelligence takes us to realms where intelligence is of no avail.

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Oscar winner Emma Thompson shares the screen with talented newcomer Fionn Whitehead in this legal and moral drama adapted from an Ian McEwan novel.

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Playing a family court judge, the two-time Oscar winner turns in another stirring performance in this otherwise wooden adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel

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In the midst of a marital crisis (her husband has announced he intends to have an affair), High Court judge Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson) has to decide whether 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness Adam (Fionn Whitehead) should be forced into having a life-saving blood transfusion.

2404d ago

Thompson’s performance as a brilliant but tortured judge elevates the second Ian McEwan adaptation of this year’s Toronto film festival, a stately courtroom saga with parallels to the Charlie Gard case

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Emma Thompson is tremendous in Ian McEwan's implausible legal drama

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Ian McEwan adapts his own novel about a conflicted judge, but for all the beating gavels, there’s no pulse here

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The movie finally punts on grappling with its ambiguities. The finale feels functional rather than haunting.

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The Children Act’s most egregious blasphemy, however, is in breaking Robert Bresson’s golden rule against redundancy when it lays the melodramatic sounds of a violin atop the sight of a masterfully expressive Emma Thompson’s visage as Fiona bawls for the first time in the film, screaming, “He was just a child!”

2404d ago