'The Children Act' Trailer Decode : Emma Thompson gives the most moving performance of her career

“The law can take over your life,” or so it’s teased in the new trailer for DIRECTV and A24’s new film, The Children Act. 

As seen in the trailer, based on the best-selling 2014 novel by Ian McEwan, Academy Award winner Emma Thompson stars as a London High Court judge, Fiona May (known in court as My Lady), who is faced with a life-changing predicament of deciding whether to give a teenage patient battling leukemia (Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead) the right to refuse a blood transfusion that could ultimately save his life.

His reasoning: 

“God has told us it’s wrong”

Torn by deciding whether to abide by law apart from morals, Thompson’s May also endures a dwindling marriage with her American husband, Jack (Stanley Tucci). Soon May must not only reassess the life of a teenage boy, but also her own personal crisis.

She faces a life-changing decision: should she force a cancer-diagnosed teenage boy (Whitehead) to have the blood transfusion that will save his life, even after his family refuses treatment on religious grounds? Her unorthodox visit to his hospital bedside has a profound impact on them both, stirring strong new emotions in the boy and long-buried feelings in her.

Richard Eyre, who helmed films Notes on a Scandal and Iris, directs the film. FilmNation and BBC Films are co-financing the film, which is produced by Duncan Kenworthy (Notting Hill, Love Actually).

Executive producers are Glen Basner and Ben Browning from FilmNation, Joe Oppenheimer and Beth Pattinson from BBC Films and Charles Moore. Ben Chaplin, Jason Watkins and Rosie Cavaliero also star.

The Children Act will be exclusively available to screen on DIRECTV August 16 and will hit theaters September 14.

Until then, here’s the official synopsis and trailer:

Fiona Maye (Thompson) is an eminent High Court judge in London presiding with wisdom and compassion over ethically complex cases of family law. But she has paid a heavy personal price for her workload, and her marriage to American professor Jack (Tucci) is at a breaking point. In this moment of personal crisis, Fiona is asked to rule on the case of Adam (Whitehead), a brilliant boy who is refusing the blood transfusion that will save his life. Adam is three months from his 18th birthday and still legally a child. Should Fiona force him to live? Fiona visits Adam in the hospital and their meeting has a profound emotional impact on them both, stirring strong new emotions in the boy and long-buried feelings in her.