The Children Act

This Ian McEwan adaptation gives Emma Thompson the best solo vehicle she’s had in a while, as a Chidren’s court judge who finds her marriage collapsing as she adjudicates for a young Jehovah’s witness boy whose life requires a blood transfusion, something his religion forbids. It feels in some ways like a companion piece to McEwan’s earlier work, Enduring Love – a look at the costs and obligations an apparent act of kindness can impose on someone. And Thompson serves the film well – giving away the emotional tempest that hides under a judicial exterior. But there is a tendency here to play things so emotionally restrained that everything stays at a slight distance – Thompson’s character is so determined to not have the emotional conversation and engagement she clearly needs to have with the people around her. And put next to the pure warmth of Stanley Tucci whose every step shows how ready he is to accept her if she’ll just lower the barriers slightly, the very English resolve gets incredibly frustrating. There are some decent supporting performances here – Jason Watkins, in particular, steals scenes wholesale with a glance as Thompson’s clerk – but this never quite goes beyond a theoretical exercise in moral dilemmas into something more emotionally accessible.