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| Scene from The Children Act |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: September 14, 2018
Release Number: 74
Directed By: Richard Eyre
Starring: Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Ben Chaplin
Plot: As her marriage crumbles, a judge must decide a case involving a teenage boy who is refusing a blood transfusion on religious principle.
There have been few periods as stumbling for A24 as the Fall of 2018. Whereas they had spent the past two years producing a mix of exciting crowd-pleasers and Oscar-caliber entertainment, they had trouble getting too much off the ground. In their penultimate release for the year, director Richard Eyre's The Children Act, there was the sense that they had a dramatic hit on their hands, potentially landing Emma Thompson in the Oscar race. However, it shared one similarity to the studio's previous film, Slice, in that neither really reached their full potential in the cultural zeitgeist. Despite being based on a novel by acclaimed author Ian McEwan, there wasn't enough there to hook audiences and make them care enough about a story rich with a provocative conversation about church and state, and how it can play on one's emotions.
The story begins long before an idea was formed. Eyre had been a filmmaker since the 1980s and worked on a lot of British productions. He also was friends with McEwan. Together they had this belief that they wanted to work together on a film, though for decades no idea came to fruition. While McEwan's personal career began to take off afterward, leading to such Oscar-winning adaptations as Atonement, he hadn't figured out what to do with Eyre. Then one day McEwan found himself at lunch with a group of judges (called a bench) discussing their various trials. This lead to a conversation that required citing a law book that was pulled off of a shelf behind them. By the end of the exchange, McEwan had the book on his lap and was taken in by the pristine language. It's what lead him to write "The Children's Act," which was released in 2014 and lead to the Eyre-McEwan partnership that they had been wanting to achieve.
The story is a reference to a British law dating back to 1989 in which the health and safety of a child are more important than personal beliefs. McEwan used the chance to explore it as a debate between church and state and how it impacts the judge's emotional capabilities. It became a bestseller and many praised it as his best book since "On Chesil Beach." In a rare case, he also wrote the screenplay for the film. Emma Thompson was also friends with McEwan and expressed initial caution in an author adapting his own work. However, the final script gave her confidence. This was in part because the difference between the novel and script allowed for more of an interpretive guide to characters. While Thompson had read the book prior to joining the film, co-star Fionn Whitehead hadn't.
Prior to filming, Thompson had a chance to observe the judges that she would be portraying in the film. She praised their ability to be otherworldly, never allowing personal bias to inform their decisions. She sat in on trials not open to the public and even had personal time with them. She gained an understanding of how they performed their duties and it helped to shape her character. The film was also allowed to film in front of the Royal Court of Justice in London, which was rare for any film. In preparation for the film, Thompson also claims to have spent six months preparing for the music scenes, which included playing piano and singing. She considers it to be among the more difficult things she's done as an actor despite having appeared in musicals before like Beauty and the Beast. Whitehead studied personally the culture of Jehovah's Witness in order to gain a better understanding of how their ideology works.
The film had its premiere at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017. Shortly after that, A24 and DirecTV would gain the distribution rights to the film. It would be almost a year later when the film began to play in theaters. It opened August 24, 2018, in England before opening on demand the following month in the United States. Despite this approach, the film ranks among A24's most profitable films of the year, especially from the DirecTV division, with $11.6 million. It currently is among their Top 20 highest-grossing movies. It was also the highest-grossing McEwan adaptation of 2018. Considering that On Chesil Beach had Saoirse Ronan (who had a career-making turn in Atonement a decade earlier), it's weird to note that The Children's Act outgrossed it by $8 million.
The film also did very well with the critics. On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a 73% rating. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine lead the charge by saying that "This film adaptation never reaches the intimate heights of Ian McEwan's novel, but Emma Thompson's portrait of a family court judge who lets the world in at the cost of losing her own judgment is acting of the highest order." Rachel Brook of One Room With a View also liked the film by noting "An idiosyncratic curio that lives and breathes beyond its running time." Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience was one of the few who disagreed when noting that "An affecting performances from the always reliable Emma Thompson is the best reason to see this otherwise dry and a bit unwieldy adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel." Despite the overall success, the film never quite got awards traction.
While it wasn't a success in America, The Children's Act proved the value of international audiences for A24. It also helps that it was a touchy subject penned by one of the most acclaimed novelists of the 21st century featuring one of the most charismatic actresses as well. The results may have not made it a runaway success, but it came close on several accounts and made a film that captured the drama and heart of a legal system dealing with tough issues. It was a film that proved how far A24's audience ranges, and that they still have room for a few conventional films in a catalog of experimental genre pieces. Closing out 2018 was arguably the most surprising directorial debut of the year, with a film focusing on the world of skater culture that featured a famous actor moving into the world of film. Was Jonah Hill's Mid90s really the second-coming of a two-time Oscar-nominated actor? One could imagine.
Up Next: Mid90s (2018)
There have been few periods as stumbling for A24 as the Fall of 2018. Whereas they had spent the past two years producing a mix of exciting crowd-pleasers and Oscar-caliber entertainment, they had trouble getting too much off the ground. In their penultimate release for the year, director Richard Eyre's The Children Act, there was the sense that they had a dramatic hit on their hands, potentially landing Emma Thompson in the Oscar race. However, it shared one similarity to the studio's previous film, Slice, in that neither really reached their full potential in the cultural zeitgeist. Despite being based on a novel by acclaimed author Ian McEwan, there wasn't enough there to hook audiences and make them care enough about a story rich with a provocative conversation about church and state, and how it can play on one's emotions.
The story begins long before an idea was formed. Eyre had been a filmmaker since the 1980s and worked on a lot of British productions. He also was friends with McEwan. Together they had this belief that they wanted to work together on a film, though for decades no idea came to fruition. While McEwan's personal career began to take off afterward, leading to such Oscar-winning adaptations as Atonement, he hadn't figured out what to do with Eyre. Then one day McEwan found himself at lunch with a group of judges (called a bench) discussing their various trials. This lead to a conversation that required citing a law book that was pulled off of a shelf behind them. By the end of the exchange, McEwan had the book on his lap and was taken in by the pristine language. It's what lead him to write "The Children's Act," which was released in 2014 and lead to the Eyre-McEwan partnership that they had been wanting to achieve.
The story is a reference to a British law dating back to 1989 in which the health and safety of a child are more important than personal beliefs. McEwan used the chance to explore it as a debate between church and state and how it impacts the judge's emotional capabilities. It became a bestseller and many praised it as his best book since "On Chesil Beach." In a rare case, he also wrote the screenplay for the film. Emma Thompson was also friends with McEwan and expressed initial caution in an author adapting his own work. However, the final script gave her confidence. This was in part because the difference between the novel and script allowed for more of an interpretive guide to characters. While Thompson had read the book prior to joining the film, co-star Fionn Whitehead hadn't.
Prior to filming, Thompson had a chance to observe the judges that she would be portraying in the film. She praised their ability to be otherworldly, never allowing personal bias to inform their decisions. She sat in on trials not open to the public and even had personal time with them. She gained an understanding of how they performed their duties and it helped to shape her character. The film was also allowed to film in front of the Royal Court of Justice in London, which was rare for any film. In preparation for the film, Thompson also claims to have spent six months preparing for the music scenes, which included playing piano and singing. She considers it to be among the more difficult things she's done as an actor despite having appeared in musicals before like Beauty and the Beast. Whitehead studied personally the culture of Jehovah's Witness in order to gain a better understanding of how their ideology works.
The film had its premiere at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017. Shortly after that, A24 and DirecTV would gain the distribution rights to the film. It would be almost a year later when the film began to play in theaters. It opened August 24, 2018, in England before opening on demand the following month in the United States. Despite this approach, the film ranks among A24's most profitable films of the year, especially from the DirecTV division, with $11.6 million. It currently is among their Top 20 highest-grossing movies. It was also the highest-grossing McEwan adaptation of 2018. Considering that On Chesil Beach had Saoirse Ronan (who had a career-making turn in Atonement a decade earlier), it's weird to note that The Children's Act outgrossed it by $8 million.
The film also did very well with the critics. On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a 73% rating. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine lead the charge by saying that "This film adaptation never reaches the intimate heights of Ian McEwan's novel, but Emma Thompson's portrait of a family court judge who lets the world in at the cost of losing her own judgment is acting of the highest order." Rachel Brook of One Room With a View also liked the film by noting "An idiosyncratic curio that lives and breathes beyond its running time." Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience was one of the few who disagreed when noting that "An affecting performances from the always reliable Emma Thompson is the best reason to see this otherwise dry and a bit unwieldy adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel." Despite the overall success, the film never quite got awards traction.
While it wasn't a success in America, The Children's Act proved the value of international audiences for A24. It also helps that it was a touchy subject penned by one of the most acclaimed novelists of the 21st century featuring one of the most charismatic actresses as well. The results may have not made it a runaway success, but it came close on several accounts and made a film that captured the drama and heart of a legal system dealing with tough issues. It was a film that proved how far A24's audience ranges, and that they still have room for a few conventional films in a catalog of experimental genre pieces. Closing out 2018 was arguably the most surprising directorial debut of the year, with a film focusing on the world of skater culture that featured a famous actor moving into the world of film. Was Jonah Hill's Mid90s really the second-coming of a two-time Oscar-nominated actor? One could imagine.
Up Next: Mid90s (2018)
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