Film from the novel.
Courtroom drama.
Emma Thompson is a prominent high court judge, her specialty is family law, she is extremely busy, her heavy workload has distanced her from her husband and her marriage is suffering. Her marriage is childless, and now sexless to the husbands growing frustration, it comes to the point where he announces his desire for an affair.
Her next case is a 17 year old boy, still a child in the eyes of the law, suffering from leukaemia, he is refusing a lifesaving blood transfusion due to religious beliefs (Jehovah Witness). The dilemma is for her to decide whether the boy can refuse the blood transfusion, her judgment will ultimately save or end a life. The child's welfare was always the courts paramount consideration, and the transfusion goes ahead, the boy recovers.
The film falls a little flat for me from this point forward. The husband has his affair, two days later returns to a frosty home. The boy is infatuated with the judge and turns into a stalker. The leukaemia returns but he's 18 by this time and makes his own decision about treatment.
In summary, this is an intelligent, dialogue heavy drama.
Courtroom drama.
Emma Thompson is a prominent high court judge, her specialty is family law, she is extremely busy, her heavy workload has distanced her from her husband and her marriage is suffering. Her marriage is childless, and now sexless to the husbands growing frustration, it comes to the point where he announces his desire for an affair.
Her next case is a 17 year old boy, still a child in the eyes of the law, suffering from leukaemia, he is refusing a lifesaving blood transfusion due to religious beliefs (Jehovah Witness). The dilemma is for her to decide whether the boy can refuse the blood transfusion, her judgment will ultimately save or end a life. The child's welfare was always the courts paramount consideration, and the transfusion goes ahead, the boy recovers.
The film falls a little flat for me from this point forward. The husband has his affair, two days later returns to a frosty home. The boy is infatuated with the judge and turns into a stalker. The leukaemia returns but he's 18 by this time and makes his own decision about treatment.
In summary, this is an intelligent, dialogue heavy drama.