The Children Act **** (2017, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead) – Movie Review

I’m not one to judge, but the admirable and involving The Children Act (2017) has a lot going for it, not least Emma Thompson.

The admirable and involving The Children Act (2017) has a lot going for it, especially Emma Thompson’s charming and ingratiating star performance as a troubled English high court judge, and at the very least is a far better movie than Ian McEwan’s last film adaptation of one of his own novels, On Chesil Beach.

The two films share some things in common: a strongly etched female protagonist, memorable characters, a breaking-apart marriage, some powerful emotions, some important ideas and issues, some great scenes and dialogue in a dialogue-heavy film, but some unpersuasive scenes, very shaky moments, some weak support characters and some weak support performances.

Fionn Whitehead stars in The Children Act.

It is good to have Thompson back in full dramatic mode, much more like her old Nineties Oscar-winning self from Howards End (1992), In the Name of the Father (1993), The Remains of the Day (1993) and Sense and Sensibility (1995). This is a role and a performance to reckon with. Thompson would be unlucky to emerge without some awards.

She boldly goes in a part that, while great, is not really perfect for her. Emma Thompson as a troubled English high court judge? – well it takes a stretch of belief. But she makes you believe, that’s the actress’s skill. She fusses with details, she finds comedy in small  moments, she beguiles you like her character does the boy in the film.

Emma Thompson stars in The Children Act.

Less credible is Stanley Tucci as the judge’s American long-suffering husband who has finally got fed up with her unavailability, and calmly announces he is going to start an affair. It is not Tucci’s fault, it is the role. Less credible still is what turns out to be some kind of frustrated love affair between the 50-something judge Mrs Fiona Maye and the 17-year-old boy who is refusing a life-saving blood transfusion as his family are Jehova’s Witnesses. Fionn Whitehead plays Adam Henry sincerely. It is a tricky role, not specially well written, but Whitehead carries it off.

Both these male roles are not nearly as well written by McEwan as the main female role. Ben Chaplin has a few good moments as the boy’s dad Kevin Henry, Jason Watkins has the comedy relief as the judge’s helper Nigel Pauling, and Anthony Calf works hard to bring the QC Mark Berner alive. But none of these roles is full, rounded, complete, or even very interesting. They are mere side characters, side issues, there solely so the main character can shine. In one way that is good, in another it is a flaw.

Now, pursuing the idea of the film’s credibility gap, it is very hard to believe in the central story, especially when the judge skips court, dashes off to the boy’s hospital bed, and starts singing along to his guitar strumming at his bedside. Nobody, not Thompson, Meryl Streep not Bette Davis could bring this scene off. Nor can Thompson persuade as a brilliant pianist with her grand grand piano. This is something out of old Hollywood.

And there we are. This film, oh so London, and oh so 2017, is oh so old fashioned. Bette Davis would have relished the role. The movie would have gone down a storm in the Forties. Today’s audiences might reject this kind of thing out of hand. But that would be wrong. The Children Act is entertaining, provocative, intelligent and even memorable. It must be seen. It deserves it.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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