Emily Watson, in her best work in years, plays the English social worker Margaret Humphreys, whose dutiful life suddenly became a crusade when the case of a woman sent in childhood to Australia leads Humphreys to find the awful truth: 130,000 unwanted (often stigmatized as “illegitimate”) kids dispatched Down Under (in many senses) with the connivance of two governments and religious authorities. Her dogged sleuthing helped expose crimes of child exploitation and abuse, some by the Christian Brothers order. The cast is excellent, directed by Jim Loach with the sober, candid realism of his famous father, Ken Loach. Watson is a star without star poses. (2011) — David Elliott
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