seen on 10 September 2018
Richard Eyre directs Emma Thompson as Fiona Maye, Stanley Tucci as her husband Jack and Fionn Whitehead as Adam Henry in Ian McEwan's own adaptation of his novel about a high court judge (Thompson) who has to make a ruling as to whether a hospital can override the expressed wishes of a 17-year-old Jehovah's Witness (Whitehead) suffering from life-threatening leukemia who is refusing a blood transfusion.
Since the eponymous Children Act explicitly gives her the responsibility to act in the child's interest, she rules that his life must be preserved, but the case is made deliberately complex by several factors: the boy Adam is nearly eighteen (but not quite) and so very soon outside the purview of the act; he is bright, articulate, and firm in his beliefs; the judge unusually decides to visit him in hospital before making her ruling, which sets up an unexpected bond between them; and she is also undergoing a marital crisis largely brought about by her unswerving devotion to the law and its demands on her personal life, signifying her withdrawal from the emotional commitments of personal relationships.
Though based on a real case known to the author, and keen to show the actual workings of the Family Court in the UK (as opposed to highly stylised and inaccurate presentations of courtroom dramas in film and on TV), the story does in fact stretch credulity because of the subsequent interactions between Adam and Fiona. The interactions are of course vital in developing the themes of personal choice and responsibility, and the perils of either engaging in or standing aloof from difficult encounters and relationships. But in the later parts of the film Adam's behaviour seems at times too schematic, a fact which even the excellent performance of Fionn Whitehead cnnot quite hide.
However, the courtroom scenes are sensitively and impressively filmed, giving an intriguing impression of the real theatricality of the proceedings, and the way in which this preserves the dignity of the court in the face of the human misery which surrounds and indeed creates the various cases. We are in no doubt that the issues are contentious, not to say controversial, and Fiona Maye is both conscientious and skilful in delivering her judgements. At the same time, there are always subtle indications of the toll this work is taking on her, even if at times she seems barely conscious of it.
The world view of the Jehovah's Witnesses is presented with as little prejudice as possible, though it is a hard one to sympathise with. However the integrity of the family involved is crucial to the ethical dilemma at the core of the film, and the line of questioning pursued by the hospital's barrister cannot help but appear demeaning in its rhetorical skill. But equally, the parents' barrister is scoring points as well; what is interesting is that the judge sees behind the legal wrangling into the heart of the matter. Her decision to visit Adam, quixotic as it may seem, reflects her keen belief that understanding - the application of intellect to difficult problems - is the way forward in even the most intractable situations.
The success of the film hinges upon the interaction between the judge and the patient, and their first meeting is beautifully acted by Emma Thompson and Fionn Whitehead. Indeed, Emma Thompson's performance as a whole is one of the finest she has done, portraying a fiercely intelligent woman facing a severe personal crisis and attempting to solve it as if it were only a professional problem. The magnetism between the powerful judge and the articulate but impressionable teenager undercuts her usual expectation of being in control, but at the same time shows the determined young Adam that there is much that he does not know. It's a wonderful stroke that the intense conversation between them about right and wrong, almost legalistic in its tension, should be followed by an apparently casual invitation to talk about music, in which adolescent enthusiasm bursts forth in Adam in quite a different way. But it is significant, too, that Fiona Maye often deflects a difficult problem by resorting to music herself.
The film raises profound issues, but the later parts of the story risks some melodrama, and the parallel plot of the marriage troubles is at times too cursory, leaving Stanley Tucci with a rather underdeveloped character. (It's actually rather interesting that the traditional roles of workaholic husband and dutiful but frustrated wife have been completely reversed here.) The intensity and sheer intelligence of Emma Thompson, and the heartwarming vulnerability of Finn Whitehead in their respective performances save the film from its occasional narrative clumsiness.
However, the courtroom scenes are sensitively and impressively filmed, giving an intriguing impression of the real theatricality of the proceedings, and the way in which this preserves the dignity of the court in the face of the human misery which surrounds and indeed creates the various cases. We are in no doubt that the issues are contentious, not to say controversial, and Fiona Maye is both conscientious and skilful in delivering her judgements. At the same time, there are always subtle indications of the toll this work is taking on her, even if at times she seems barely conscious of it.
The world view of the Jehovah's Witnesses is presented with as little prejudice as possible, though it is a hard one to sympathise with. However the integrity of the family involved is crucial to the ethical dilemma at the core of the film, and the line of questioning pursued by the hospital's barrister cannot help but appear demeaning in its rhetorical skill. But equally, the parents' barrister is scoring points as well; what is interesting is that the judge sees behind the legal wrangling into the heart of the matter. Her decision to visit Adam, quixotic as it may seem, reflects her keen belief that understanding - the application of intellect to difficult problems - is the way forward in even the most intractable situations.
The success of the film hinges upon the interaction between the judge and the patient, and their first meeting is beautifully acted by Emma Thompson and Fionn Whitehead. Indeed, Emma Thompson's performance as a whole is one of the finest she has done, portraying a fiercely intelligent woman facing a severe personal crisis and attempting to solve it as if it were only a professional problem. The magnetism between the powerful judge and the articulate but impressionable teenager undercuts her usual expectation of being in control, but at the same time shows the determined young Adam that there is much that he does not know. It's a wonderful stroke that the intense conversation between them about right and wrong, almost legalistic in its tension, should be followed by an apparently casual invitation to talk about music, in which adolescent enthusiasm bursts forth in Adam in quite a different way. But it is significant, too, that Fiona Maye often deflects a difficult problem by resorting to music herself.
The film raises profound issues, but the later parts of the story risks some melodrama, and the parallel plot of the marriage troubles is at times too cursory, leaving Stanley Tucci with a rather underdeveloped character. (It's actually rather interesting that the traditional roles of workaholic husband and dutiful but frustrated wife have been completely reversed here.) The intensity and sheer intelligence of Emma Thompson, and the heartwarming vulnerability of Finn Whitehead in their respective performances save the film from its occasional narrative clumsiness.
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