The Children Act

Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, The Children Act follows British judge Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson) as she rules over a case involving a dying teenager (Fionn Whitehead’s Adam) whose religious parents are preventing him from receiving life-saving treatment. Filmmaker Richard Eyre delivers a slow-moving drama that ultimately works best as a showcase for three above-average performances, as the director, working from a script by McEwan, does a superb job of eliciting top-notch work from his stars – with, especially, Thompson’s stirring turn as the conflicted protagonist carrying the narrative through its more overtly less-than-enthralling stretches. The Children Act possesses (or suffers from) a movie-of-the-week sort of quality that prevents it from becoming the engrossing drama Eyre has intended, although, to be fair, Eyre includes a small handful of better-than-expected sequences that effectively elevate the proceedings on an ongoing basis – which, in the end, confirms the picture’s place as solid drama that essentially evaporates from one’s mind minutes after it concludes.

**1/2 out of ****