This is one of those highly self-conscious movies that seek to exploit a grand theme of the conflict of religious faith, morality, and parental love. Yet it fails miserably. A judge that fails to invest in her marriage, pours her heart out for a stranger "beautiful" boy, who decides to stalk her because she ruled to save his life despite his religious beliefs, that in of itself requires real character development, which was not there. A Jehovah's witness boy who refused blood transfusion, yet has a change of heart after he was overruled and saved. How, why, and who is this young boy? Almost 2 hours, and we still cannot figure out. The boy who decides to take his own life in the end, crying how can his parents who claimed to love him could let him die? But no character development of the parents whatsoever. Emma Thompson is supposed to have acted "grandly" in this movie, but really it rings extremely hollow. The art of movie making is dying. This is just one example of it.
Review of The Children Act
