The Children Act

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Casamh H Very good acting and story Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/25/25 Full Review Audience Member A mesmerising and haunting performance by Emma Thompson with sound performances also by Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead and Jason Watkins. The complexities of emotion in Ian McEwan‘s novel brought to life on screen. It’s a ‘must see’ in my view! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/08/25 Full Review James S I read Ian McEwan's brilliant book some years ago and this masterpiece truly brings it to life. It really is a powerful and mesmerising film. But the stand out aspect is Emma Thompson's acting - literally off the scale. Even the scoring cues and background music are beautiful. True QUALITY. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/17/25 Full Review Grania H This is a throughly gripping film, both beautiful and profoundly moving. Emma Thompson is excellent as a senior judge who has invested so much of herself into her legal career and judicial persona that she has lost sight of herself. Even her downtime is filled with the rigor of studious piano playing, echoing the order and discipline that form the structure of who she has become. She has sealed herself off from life so successfully that even her husband's pleas for their marriage bounce off her with apparent minimal emotional impact. But the beautiful and inspired youth she meets as a consequence of her deciding a legal dispute over his fate touches her in a way that clearly nothing else had, for many years.. The divine blend of beauty and tragedy that is so hard to capture in any work of art. The impossibility of denying emotion in life is challenged in a surprising, lovely and dreadful way. Great pathos Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/27/24 Full Review Andrew W This film began with promise, mainly owing to the fact that it starred Emma Thompson. But it was this star lead that gave the film the appearance of being far better than it actually was. Had she been a man and he a girl, that long, lingering kiss in the pouring rain would’ve drawn a collective gasp of disdain from audiences and critics alike, provoking thoughts of Lolita or words like ‘inappropriate,’ and worse ‘paedophile’ ringing out from every living room in the world. Sad how female leads attract sympathy whereas male leads attract negative and media-hyped judgements. Thompson’s character was too thinly-layered for the film to have delivered on the pathos it intended to provoke with audiences. She: a white, upper-class, privileged Londoner with a dazzling career going through a few marital issues. He: a cancer-stricken young boy with controlling, religious zealots as parents. As a result, this onscreen partnership lacked substance and the film lost its credibility. Rubbish. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 10/02/24 Full Review ivan c A quality thought provoking film, excellent acting and great dialogue. Quintessential British film. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/26/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Children Act

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