Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Phillip Herbert, Danny Huston

- Reviewed by Linda

Children of Men is simultaneously fascinating, thrilling, heartbreaking, scary, and... frustrating. Based on a book by P.D. James, the story takes place not far into the future, in the year 2027, in a society falling apart because of years of worldwide infertility. In the past (as in right about now), for some reason newborn children began dying, and women became barren. The opening news-clip reports tell of "Seattle under seige", major cities and countries in chaos, and the shocking top story headline that the youngest person in the world, an 18-year-old in Brazil, has been killed by a crazed mob of celebrity whores in a coffee shop. For the sake of the story, of course Britain has become the last bastion of civilized, um, civilization. Gates have been erected, Homeland Security runs razor-wired camps to hold then deport illegal immigrants, and everyone is in a state of numbed hysteria.

Theo (Clive Owen) is a rumpled worker-bee who stumbles through his everyday life, even if it means narrowly missing being blown up in a random terrorist act in a cafe, or being abruptly kidnapped by mysterious people in a van. He goes through his routines bleary-eyed, until his ex-love (Julianne Moore) shows up from his past and jerks him into the present. She is now the leader of an anti-government group fighting for refugee rights, and based on Theo's long-ago radical past, she thinks Theo is the man they are looking for. You see, something astonishing has happened: a young immigrant woman named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) is pregnant, and if this is discovered, well who knows what will happen. She needs to get to the coast to catch a ship to flee Britain, to a rumored safe refuge... an oasis of "greens" where she may be safe.

From there Children of Men takes off into a breathless thriller. It is a relentless chase scene, where no one is who they seem, where the good guys might not be so good, and the bad guys are even worse. Theo is startled into action, as his life is suddenly given purpose, even if he is not exactly sure what he is doing. And to top it off, there is the young woman who is eight months into her pregnancy, yet her secret simply cannot be discovered.

Director Alfonso Cuarón has masterfully created a future of gray bleakness, where technology advances are there, but do not dominate the story, where chaos reigns and people seem to have lost their humanity (literally and figuratively). The action scenes are masterful in their urgency, especially a sequence with Theo clamoring through an urban wasteland with tanks, soldiers, and bullets flying. He scurries and ducks and cowers and runs again. After many minutes (apparently about 15) the film allows you to catch a breath of astonishment... the whole thing, you suddenly realize, was done in one continuous take! It is truly amazing.

But for me, Children of Men also has some nagging problems. There is often no explanation or backdrop to explain the most basic things. What would the government do with Kee if they got her? What has happened to the rest of the world? Cities are under seige by whom? If there is media everywhere, why has basic communication seemingly broken down? There is a point in the story where a woman tells about her past experiences as a midwife—when the babies started dying, not just where she worked, but simultaneously across the world in Australia where her sister also delivered children. She tells the story to Theo pefunctorily, as though he may not have heard of what happened 20 years earlier—when in fact he was there, and had lost his own child. This scene seemed like the screenplay's awkward attempt at sneaking in some explanation where it dearly needed it, but the method just came across as clunky.

That said, there is a reason that Children of Men is getting praised. Cuarón has created a sci-fi future that is accessible to action fans and conspiracy theorists. He has made a human story that is appeals to those who demand more than guns and violence. And he has thrust a great actor (Clive Owen) forward as a leading man with not only looks and charisma, but acting chops to boot. Cuarón lays on the chase so relentlessly in this thriller, that it literally isn't until the last frame of the film that the audience gets to catch their breath.

Official Movie Site

Agree? Disagree? Go to the Forum!  |  Back to Video/DVD

Home | Currently Playing | For Rent
Slice | Links | "Get to know us!"

©2006 Moviepie e-mail us