Audrey's Children

5/7/2025

Cinematically honoring an individual for determined, heroic accomplishments is certainly an inspiring and noble reason for making a movie. But, to do justice to the story, the elements need to be engaging, entertaining and compellingly told, which is where this fact-based offering from director Ami Canaan Mann comes up short. The film presents the little-known, fact-based story of Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer), a transplanted English pediatric oncologist who took over this practice area at the prestigious Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in 1969. At the time, she proposed the implementation of new treatment strategies for youngsters afflicted by childhood cancer, a radical departure from the standard care in use at the time, which was quite ineffectual as evidenced by its 10%