Horst_In_Translation Review of The Children Act

The Children Act (2017)

More than just a courtroom drama, excels from several perspectives

[6/10 · 9 October 2018]

"The Children Act" is a new British movie, well not that new, but from 2017 in fact, but it took a long time to get here to Germany. Director is Richard Eyre and the script is by Ian McEwan, who adapted his own novel for the screen here. Besides that, the movie is Emma Thompson. She is in basically every scene from the very beginning until the very end. And even if there are some major supporting players (all men), it never feels as if this film is really about them. But let's take a look at the story here. We have a successful judge dealing with all kinds of critical cases, such as very early on Siamese Twins that need to be separated if at least one of them should live. It's a bit of a prologue to her profession you could say, while at the same time we find out about her disrupted marriage with Stanley Tucci's character. I like Tucci and the character is also somewhat interesting at times, but I felt he was just a bit too stereotypically written unfortunately and I quite disliked everything linked to him unfortunately. Quite a shame because had they taken care more of that aspect other than sending him back home a few days when his affair ended right away, then this could have been an even better movie. But yeah, it's not really about him anyway, but much more about the Jehova's Witnesses boy, not just about Thompson's character's decision if she should save his life against his will, but also all that follows afterward. I must say I really struggled with the stalker element. I did think indeed he could do something terrible to her or himself when he gets rejected repeatedly, but still this part of the story did not really work for me. But it did get better towards the end. There was a good occasion when we see him sit down inside the court building after breaking up basically with his parents and this could have been a great moment for the ending credits to roll in. And there was one more great moment afterward, I think close to the piano singing performance about which I am still not sure if I liked it or not. It sure did not have the emotional impact I wanted it to have. But I did like the final talk (outside the bed) between the married couple where she breaks into tears about the boy's fate and his struggles with how his parents decided to let him die. Completely aside from that, I also think the film is a great watch for everybody with an interest in the law. Moral questions are frequent in here, also to some extent why she actually decided to visit the boy if her courtroom decision was never in doubt. All in all, it was mostly Thompson's performance that turned this into a pretty decent watch most of the time. The film is probably not well enough received to score her another Oscar nomination, but I have a feeling she would be more deserving than two or three of the actual nominees at the very end. I also really liked Jason Watkins here, an actor I have not come across too much really previously in my (cinematic) life, but he was unintentionally hilarious and had great chemistry with Thompson. Really loved the moment when he tells her at the end that it would have been really horrible had he had a truly wild moment in his life. Charming stuff right there in a scene that actually could have been pretty sad too. But yeah, the depth belongs all and in its entirety to Thompson's character. Overall, "The Children Act" is not a great watch or must-see, but good enough to be checked out if you like the actors or maybe the subject. I give it a thumbs-up.