“Let the Children Come to Me” – Catholic World Report

“Let the Children Come to Me”

A Review of Audrey’s Children by Nick Olszyk

Distribution Service: Theatrical

MPAA Rating, PG

C NS Rating, Not rated at the time of this review

R eel Rating, 1/2

Cancer is one of the great scourges of humanity: a horrible, traitorous disease where cells are warped and attack the body they serve. This is even more egregious in children who have just started their lives. When Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer) began her practice in 1969 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), children had a 10% survival rate. By her death in 2022, that rate had risen to 80%, due significantly to her efforts. Audrey’s Children tells her amazing story of determination, endurance, and love that brought comfort and healing to untold millions.

When Evans is appointed the director of oncology at CHOP, she was already a well-established researcher and physician for over a decade but is nonetheless briming with new ideas and enthusiasm. At the time, the main practice was to use a “light touch” with chemotherapy and radiation to minimize pain in young bodies. Evans argues for a more aggressive approach that increases the dosage but also localizes and individualizes treatment. To this end, she teams up with Dr. Dan D’Angio (Jimmi Simpson), a shy but talented colleague to pour over mountains of previously unexamined data to back up her theory. In addition to improving her patients’ chances, she also recognizes the enormous financial burden medical care, food, and housing put on these stressed and often low-income families and seeks to find a way they can stay with their children free of charge.

There’s a famous adage that vocation “is where your heart’s deepest longing meets the world’s greatest need.” Evans is perhaps one of the 20^th century’s greatest examples of this phrase. From the time she was a young girl in pre-war Brition, Evans wanted to be a doctor and help children. She spends every waking moment working or raising money, rarely visiting her small apartment and often eating dinner in the basement of the hospital while going over cases with D’Angio. Although they clearly love one another, they put off getting married until 2005 when both were nearly eighty, and even so had a short ceremony at 7:30am so they could make their rounds an hour later. A devout Anglican, he sees her job as a religious calling from God, saying “[I] was put on this Earth to help children.” There is no more potent force in the world than religious fervor pointed in the right direction.

Despite their obvious admiration, the filmmakers are also honest about her flaws. Her headstrong nature can make her rude and obstinate towards those she perceives as obstacles. In her first months at CHOP, it’s fair to say she makes more enemies than friends. She deliberately breaks hospital protocol to advance her theories, even leading to her possible expulsion on one occasion. It can be frustrating when you believe policies are antiqued and need to be torn down, but it is also important to be prudent and careful, especially in the medical profession. Wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, is needed to properly discern these situations, which Evans learns gradually during her career.

The Hippocratic Oath famously specifies that the first rule is “do no harm.” Yet this becomes murkier when treatments for cancer can have such horrible consequences. Despite her gung-ho nature, Evans is acutely aware of this and always puts the needs of her children before personal glory. Like Jesus, she is not driven by accolades or money but genuine love for God’s purest creatures. It is in today’s success driven culture many look at such people with disdain. Why waste hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of medical treatment on a kid who hasn’t contributed anything and may only live a short time? Easy. They are precious in God’s sight and infinitely valuable. This doesn’t mean Evans is shy about reality. Most of her early patients die, sometimes right in front of her. She frequently talks about Heaven and not in a condescending fashion but with the conviction of someone who believes as much as they do. It is a mystery why God allows innocent children to go through so much suffering, but fortunately it also brings out the best in people.

Audrey’s Children is a little dull at times, particularly for those of unfamiliar with medical jargon, but nonetheless well crafted and compelling. Natalie Dormer’s performance is also the best I’ve seen in any film this year so far. She reminded me of Jesus’ command to “let the little children come to me.” My kids, thank the Lord, do not have cancer but deserve no less attention from me what Audrey gives to her patients, and that is her greatest gift.