The Children Act

Dir: Richard Eyre

2018

***

Based on Ian McEwan’s 2014 novel of the same name, Richard Eyre’s adaptation of The Children Act is part theatre, part courtroom drama and part average television drama. It’s the sort of thing you watch on a Sunday night if nothing else is on. The screenplay was solid - also written by McEwan - and the direction and performances are great, but I just couldn’t invest much emotion into it, even though emotion should have been integral to the story. Emma Thompson plays Fiona Maye - a judge in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. The first case we see her on involves the separation of conjoined twins – the parents don’t want to intervene but without separation both will die. Maye decides that one should die so that the other lives, a decision she seems to have no issue delivering. Soon after, a case is brought before her involving a seventeen-year-old boy, Adam Henry (Fionn Whitehead), who is suffering from leukemia. Adam's doctors want to perform a blood transfusion, as that will allow them to administer more drugs to cure him. However, Adam and his parents (played by Ben Chaplin and Eileen Walsh) are Jehovah's Witnesses, and believe that having a blood transfusion is against biblical principles. Maye is convinced this is a special case, and more to the point that Adam is a special boy. She decides to go against the grain and goes to the hospital to visit Adam for herself. The two talk, with Maye attempting to determine what it is that Adam really wants, and whether he has been persuaded by his parents. Adam starts to play Down by the Salley Gardens, which Maye then sings. Adam is very drawn to Maye, and begs her not to leave. She nevertheless leaves, and returns to court. She rules that, as a matter of law, Adam's welfare is the "paramount consideration" and declares that the medical treatment, including blood transfusion, may proceed despite the absence of Adam's consent and that of his parents. Meanwhile, Maye's marriage is failing. Her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci), has said that he wants to have an affair with a colleague. He has become tired of her constantly working and never having time for him. He says that he will have an affair, but is being totally open about it. He claims that he has never stopped, and will never stop, loving her. He packs his bags and drives off. She carries on with work without making contact and changes the locks. He returns after two days. After letting him in, she acts very coldly towards him, resulting in an argument between the two, after Fiona is seen to have been to the office of a divorce solicitor. The transfusion is successful, and Adam is released from the hospital. He leaves many messages for Maye, saying that she has changed the way that he thinks about the world. He follows her to work one day, and gives her various poems and letters that he has written. She tells him to stop following her, she has other cases as he is still young and has his whole life in front of him. Next, Maye travels to Newcastle, and Adam follows her there. He tells her that he wants to live with her, as he does not understand why his parents were happy for him to die. She sends him back to London. He kisses her on the lips and in the moment she accepts. Shortly after she returns to London, Maye accompanies her friend and colleague on the piano as he sings at a lawyers' concert. Just before she is due to play, she gets a note saying that Adam has relapsed and may not make it through the night. Instead of the planned encore, she plays and sings "Down by the Salley Gardens", before running to the hospice to see Adam. Adam has refused another blood transfusion, saying that it is his choice. Maye returns home, and breaks down in front of Jack, telling him the story and calling Adam a "lovely boy" before falling asleep. Adam dies and Maye attends his funeral, before walking away with Jack. I’ve not read the book, I’m sure it’s very good, but I do wonder whether this is another case of a great book being somewhat impossible to adapt into a film of equal quality. The performances were fantastic but I’m not sure the meaning behind each action was as explained as it would have been in the book. I’m not sure I’ve seen a film where the performances are so strong when the story is so flat and lifeless. The performances outweigh and somewhat overwhelm the general mood of the film. It was like watching defibrillation on an Egyptian mummy -  Emma Thompson and Fionn Whitehead are the spark that keep you hopeful but in the end you can’t bring something to life that is well and truly dead. The problem here is Richard Eyre. He’s a director who has indeed made good films but only because he’s had amazing actors to rely on. I’m afraid these actors have been carrying his films, and him, for years.