It toys with your emotions, but never enough to make you care too much about the main character. Perhaps this is the point; to keep the audience at a cold distance, mimicking the barrier of law that Fiona Maye uses to protect herself...

| Original Score: B | Aug 1, 2024

A simple story about a senior judge's decision against the backdrop of her grinding-to-a-halt marriage made more complex because of the consequences. A film which will make you think about your world, instead of escape from it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2021

The first half sets a fundamental picture of elegance and nuanced complexity. However, it's second act wanes in this momentum, it almost feels like there is a big chunk of an essential storyline missing to complete a fulfilling centrepiece.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 22, 2020

This gripping adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel of the same name is well worth checking out, as Emma Thompson makes light work of a heavy role in very impressive fashion.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2020

Children Act is predominantly a character study with a captivating plot lurking underneath. Dialogue and subtext are a delight, reminiscent of also superb 45 Years (heartbreak happens at every age).

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 28, 2020

The Children Act is something to see on its cast alone. Fortunately the plot is quite interesting on its own as well.

| Sep 30, 2019

Filmmaker Richard Eyre delivers a slow-moving drama that ultimately works best as a showcase for three above-average performances...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 9, 2019

Emma Thompson once again proves she's our finest actress working today. The power of the film is diluted slightly by an insistence of adherence to the source but the fine performances shine through.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2019

The film occasionally threatens to veer into melodrama ... but [Emma] Thompson, dedicated as she is, manages to make it all seem plausible with an emotional turn that refuses to buckle under the film's weaker choices

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 1, 2019

An idiosyncratic curio that lives and breathes beyond its running time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2019

Ponders faith and medicine among Jehovah's Witnesses to stunning effect - and with heart-wrenching delicacy.

| Jan 28, 2019

The Children Act succumbs to melodrama and unfocused storytelling, mainly due to the many story threads that never truly develop. Fortunately, the film is enlivened by good performances by Emma Thompson and Fionn Whitehead.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 18, 2019

Adam Henry initially exudes genuinely a sense of uncertain distance, post-transfusion, as he becomes increasingly fanatic... and as the sentimentality piles on in heavy, predictable slops, the film's sensitivity curdles unpleasantly into scepticism.

| Jan 3, 2019

Very much an 'adult' drama with all of its combined elements, The Children Act is a solid affair on all counts.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 21, 2018

If there's a right and a wrong involved it's not immediately obvious. The film, like the book, is a conversation piece that will have viewers arguing over coffee.

| Dec 6, 2018

However, this is a riposte for anyone who thinks that all the great contemporary British drama can only be found on television.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 5, 2018

The players are excellent, with Tucci at his very best and Thompson delivering one of her greatest performances yet - which, in a career like hers, is really saying something.

| Nov 28, 2018

This is a film that poses important moral and legal questions, but it's also a personal story in which a diligent woman, who regularly faces intense criticism, has to confront several deeply troubling personal problems.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 26, 2018

indefinite is the best feature of a film that despite being imperfect, is seductive in all of its interior mysteries. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Nov 26, 2018

Thompson shines as the heart of the film, her increasingly troubling confrontations with Fionn Whitehead conveying the transformative power one person can have on another.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 25, 2018