Audrey’s Children, 2024.
Directed by Ami Canaan Mann.
Starring Natalie Dormer, Jimmi Simpson, Clancy Brown, Rose Decker, Evelyn Giovine, Brandon Michael Hall, Julianna Layne, Roberto Lombardi, Kat Murphy, Jeff Panzarella, Charles W Harris III, Todd Berry, Bobby Favoretto, J.P. Edwards, Scott Teller, Sabrina Halzel, Michael Sontarp, and Ben Chase.
SYNOPSIS:
1969. Dr. Audrey Evans joins world-renowned children’s hospital and battles sexism, medical conventions, and the subterfuge of her peers to develop revolutionary treatments and purchase the first Ronald McDonald House, impacting millions.
Without question, director Ami Canaan Mann’s Audrey’s Children is a biopic about a remarkable, trailblazing physician worthy of being told for its baked-in inspirational power alone. The film centers on British oncologist Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer) in 1969, working at a Philadelphia hospital interested in pushing further into pediatric cancer research, particularly surrounding neuroblastoma. Naturally, she is underestimated, which comes from nuanced sexism, but her superiors and co-workers also express wanting to put that money into alternative research that might prove more successful.
Primarily, Audrey wants to run tests combining different cancer treatment medications (humanely experimenting on mice first, demanding the rodents be treated with empathy and the medicine inserted through a specific, less painful method) to study the effects. Much of the dialogue here is grounded in scientific jargon, but the endgame is the very familiar five stages of cancer, with her research (which is often thwarted and restricted) observing how cancer spreads and metastasizes across the body and how each scenario requires a different approach for treatment. However, the higher the stage, the lower the survival rate.
Today, the survival rate among children is up to 80%, but the astonishing facts don’t necessarily mean this is a riveting lot. It’s undeniably a role that Natalie Dormer has thrown a lot of tenacity, resilience, and commitment into, but the dry storytelling also plays out in such a formulaic fashion that it feels like screenwriter Julia Fisher Farbman was actively translating the material into a clichéd template, presumably for the sake of narrative cleanliness. The result feels bland and free from real emotion.
If there is an exception, it’s with young neuroblastoma patient Mia McAllister (Julianna Layne), the child and family Audrey develops a connection with, which becomes her driving force to press forward with the research even if it means breaking a couple of rules and distancing the peers who are on her side. There are sweet, tender conversations built on imagination, such as pretending the medicine is made up of pink flowers (to minimize the fear of needles), and heavier but similarly fantastical conversations about heaven. Yes, this connection is another cliché, but it elicits an emotional response, which is more than can be said for Audrey’s interactions with everyone else, including one supportive doctor who would eventually become her husband late in life.
Audrey is put through the usual trials and tribulations for a woman in her field circa 1960s, which is fine, but there is no distinction to make this feel like a unique vision or take on this type of story. The film is even less successful at demonstrating who Audrey is outside of her work. Nevertheless, her efforts were valiant and heroic and reverberate loudly even today with institutions such as the Ronald McDonald housings for cancer patients (through her hard work and some chance interactions with the Philadelphia Eagles, they created the first home). Still, Audrey’s Children isn’t enough about her or the children, content to mostly spill out history with minimal engagement and investment beyond the accomplishments themselves.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
