The Children Act Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Emma Thompson, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I can’t remember the last time Thompson had such a juicy role and she definitely nailed it. Seriously, it was quite dazzling to see her character jumping from one case to another but she was always on point. I also did appreciate the directing by Richard Eyre which might seem too straightforward but I think it worked fine with this topic. Finally, the whole dilemma around the decision if this young man should live or die was actually quite fascinating. Indeed, I’m not a religious man but Adam and his father had actually some compelling arguments about why he should be allowed to die if he wanted to. It’s also interesting that, according to the British law, in 100% of the cases, the judges always choose to force the children to be treated, regardless of what their parents might want or what could be their religious beliefs so why did Fiona Maye went through all this trouble? The outcome was also really intriguing since, even though she did save Adam’s life in the process, she also turned his life completely upside down and, as a result, he was so confused and even completely lost. Of course, you might argue that his behavior was seriously erratic but you are talking about a very influenceable young boy who lived his all whole life under a very strict religious dogma which suddenly had been lifted with nothing to replace it. Unfortunately, it felt as if the writers got stuck at some point as it seemed that they didn’t know where to go from this point on. As a result, the only thing they could come up with was apparently to have Adam getting sick again and making him choose to die this time around which was, in my opinion, a rather cheap option to swiftly wrap everything up. I didn’t even mention Fiona Maye’s marital issues because, even though it was an obvious attempt to show she had a complicated life like anyone else, it was however hardly interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a solid drama and it is definitely worth a look.

Narración ilustrativa, Eyre es un director sin imaginación. Thompson le salva varios momentos pobres, Tucci hace muy poco.