Film
The Children Act
- Director
- Richard Eyre
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 105 mins
You wait years for a Jehovah’s Witness medical dilemma drama and then two come along in as many months. Much the same is true of Ian McEwan adaptations. Rather more high profile than either Apostasy or On Chesil Beach, and adapted by McEwan himself from his 2014 novel, Richard Eyre‘s drama has Emma Thompson on top form as a conscientious High Court judge specialising in family law.
While dealing with her collapsing marriage to neglected Stanley Tucci, she finds herself embroiled in a legal and moral dilemma when required to rule on the case of young Fionn Whitehead (from Dunkirk, remember?). He’s been stricken with leukaemia and doctors believe that a blood transfusion will save his life. But he and his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and vehemently opposed to such an intervention. Since he’s only 17 and not legally an adult, Thompson is obliged by the 1989 Children Act to make a decision on his behalf.
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