The Children Act

The Children Act (2018) is a British courtroom drama you can watch online on iFILM. Emma Thompson plays Fiona Maye, a London High Court judge who rules on the lives of children while her own marriage falls apart at home.

Adam is seventeen, has leukaemia, and refuses the blood transfusion that would save him — his faith forbids it, and his parents back him. He turns eighteen in three months, so the decision lands on Fiona's desk. She does something judges rarely do: she leaves the bench and goes to his hospital bed to meet the boy herself. What passes between them follows her long after the verdict.

Directed by Richard Eyre from Ian McEwan's novel, with McEwan adapting his own screenplay, the film keeps its voice low. Stanley Tucci is the husband worn down by her work; Finn Whitehead, soon to break out in Dunkirk, is Adam. A quiet study of where the law ends and conscience takes over. Stream The Children Act (2018) online on iFILM.