AUDREY’S CHILDREN

Here is the decision, and it's an easy one. AUDREY'S CHILDREN tells the true story of Dr. Audrey Evans, a pediatric oncologist who fought to revolutionize the treatment of childhood cancer — and who helped establish the very first Ronald McDonald House. It is incredibly moving, well produced, and anchored by an amazing performance from Natalie Dormer.

The film honors what Scripture honors: sacrificial care for the vulnerable, tireless work on behalf of sick children and their families, and open talk of God and Heaven. Its only content notes are minor — a single strong obscenity and some scenes where the doctor lies and sneaks to advance her work.

So: if you're looking for a story that will move you and point your family toward compassion, see it. Younger children may need a parent nearby for the one bit of language, but this is a film built to feed you.

It's 1969, and Dr. Audrey Evans is starting a new job at a Philadelphia hospital. She's passionate about a new approach — "combination chemotherapy" — for treating neuroblastoma, a nerve cancer usually found in children under five.

When the hospital says a trial would take at least a year to launch, Audrey refuses to take no for an answer. She approaches a pharmaceutical company herself for funding, begins her study, and along the way notices something no one else seems to: the families of her young patients have nowhere to stay. What she does about both is where the story truly begins.

Four stars, and they're earned. AUDREY'S CHILDREN is an incredibly moving film built on a touching script and careful production. It tells its true story with real emotional weight, never letting the medical detail overwhelm the human heart at its center.

Natalie Dormer's lead performance is the reason to go — the source calls it amazing, and the whole film rests on it. As Dr. Evans, she carries both the fierce determination that drives the science forward and the deep compassion that makes the story worth telling. This is well-made filmmaking in service of a story worth remembering.

AUDREY'S CHILDREN carries a very strong moral worldview with strong Christian elements, and it wears them plainly. A doctor and her colleagues are wholly focused on saving the lives of their young patients. Audrey goes further still, caring for the families of the children she treats and helping them whenever she can — a compassion that ultimately leads to the first Ronald McDonald House.

The film isn't shy about God. The script includes direct references to God and Heaven — in one scene, the doctor tells a patient that God made the sunset look pretty just for her, and the two talk about what Heaven is like and how those who are there are still with us. It's the kind of tenderness a Christian family will recognize.

If there's a shadow, it's an honest one: Audrey is willing to do whatever it takes to get her trial off the ground, including sneaking through other doctors' files, slipping into other hospitals for records, and lying to secure funding. The film doesn't pretend these choices are clean, which makes for a good conversation about zeal and integrity.

At its heart this is a story about laying down your life for the weak and the sick. Scripture calls that the shape of love itself: "Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

This is a rare and lovely thing: a beautifully made film about real compassion, real faith, and one woman's refusal to give up on children the world had given up on. A single obscenity and some ethical shortcuts are the only cautions, and they're small beside what this film offers. Our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip.