THE LEISURE SEEKER (15)

HELEN Mirren and Donald Sutherland fire up a rusty mobile home and head off on a road trip. With these giants of the silver screen at the wheel, you’d expect great acting, fizzing chemistry and barrels of laughs. Sadly, this maudlin, meandering yarn amounts to less than the sum of its parts. A MAGNIFICENT performance from Emma Thompson is the main attraction in this classy drama.

Adapted by Ian McEwan from his 2014 novel of the same name, it tells the story of family court judge Fiona Maye who must weigh up two very messy dilemmas at the same time.

At work she has been tasked with ruling on the case of Adam Henry (Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead), a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who is refusing a life-saving blood transfusion in accordance with the rulings of his religion.

As the boy is still a minor, she has the power to enforce the treatment against his will. But he is almost 18, so Maye decides to visit him in hospital to determine whether he should decide his own fate.

Meanwhile, things are falling apart at home. She has been so consumed with the demands of her job she has neglected her academic husband (Stanley Tucci) who tells her he is considering having an affair with a young woman.

Thompson makes us feel the weight of her dilemmas with a beautifully understated performance. A powerful, thoughtful and unusually grown-up drama.