Although Children of Men is centered around the tired idea of a dreary dystopian future, director Alfonso Cuaron has taken an entirely refreshing and amazing approach that will reaffirm your belief in the art of filmmaking. Adapted from a novel of the same name by P.D. James, the film presents the chilling concept of a near-future world where the entire population is infertile. No children have been born in over 18 years, and the adults have lost hope for themselves and their communities. The population stumbles through their daily routines in a rapidly disintegrating infrastructure littered with slums, abandoned schools, and fading dreams.
Clive Owen stars as Theodore Faron, a former activist who has settled into a mundane and secure existence as a cog in a corporate machine. Like most of the population, he drifts through life without any joy or purpose, just taking one day at a time as the clock slowly winds down on the entire human race. He had a child once with his long-ago girlfriend, but lost both of them when the child died. When the girlfriend re-enters his life with a surprising proposition, he’s faced with the decision about whether to remain in his comfort zone or assist her with her dangerous request. Eventually, he chooses to help her transport a refugee woman to a safe destination. He later learns that the woman is miraculously pregnant and expecting delivery within days.
England has become a wasteland, with trash piling up in the streets, deteriorating mass transit vehicles, and crumbling buildings. This bleak society is one of Cuaron’s primary accomplishments, as the production design seems so real that viewers don’t have to make any leap of the imagination to buy the concept. There are a few minor nods to technological advancement, mostly through the use of video billboards and slightly different vehicles, but the tech never detracts from the believability of the environments. Cars look like real production models covered in grime, fashion hasn’t gone off on any wild tangents, and there aren’t any hovercrafts or other futuristic toys to distract viewers. Cuaron’s London isn’t too different from today’s reality, making the film seem chillingly possible rather than absurdly abstract.
The movie’s acting duties rest firmly on Owen’s shoulders, but he’s backed up by a superb supporting cast including Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Moore’s role is far smaller than expected, making her exit all the more surprising and powerful. Caine gets the most mileage out of his brief role as an aging, slightly comical hippie, seemingly relishing the chance to play against his usual reserved type. Ejiofor isn’t given much material in his role as an activist leader, but contributes a fairly solid performance.
Article comments
1 - Donna A.
The more I hear about this movie the more I want to see it. I all ready have it down onmy list to buy just as soon as it comes out on DVD.
Great review.
Donna A.
2 - Larry Slade
Well. I hated it and left the theater an hour into the show. I was just too bored to continue. I didn't care about the story or the characters. Pretentious and dumb movie.
3 - The Media Cid
I enjoyed it and its reality based portrayal of a future world trying to hold on to its past. As the reviewer says the camera work brings a new perspective to the viewer and allows him entrance into the bleak, war weary world of its characters. Recommended.
4 - Ronbo
If you like Leftist anti-Western Civilization propaganda, or suffer from a major mental illness, this is just the movie for you.
The absurd plot is based on the idea that women will cease to have babies because of something mankind did to the planet to somehow end births
You get the drift: anti-capitalist; anti-business; anti-Big Bad Corporations.
So naturally, the people of this future world go absolutely ape, tribal and start killing off one another with glee after the awful truth sinks in that they are the last generation. This to my mind would be a rather bizarre reaction, since a zero population growth would open up all sorts of employment opportunities in the more wealthy nations, and, logically, immigrants -- the object of Government hatred in this movie -- would be welcome to keep things moving until the end days, even if they are illegal.
I realize that facts, logic and reason have little to do with modern film making by the neo-Communist Alfonso Cuarón, but after introducing us to this "Brave New World" of a brutal, dark and dirty Bombay looking futuristic London, bombs start going off, and before you can say, "Holy Crap!," rebels jump out of nowhere to take the hero, Theo (rather anti-hero, he's a drunk) into the heart of darkness where "Homeland Security" (British soldiers wearing American style uniforms and helmets) seem to be killing out of hand everyone who isn't British, or throwing a lucky few into concentration camps for deportation.
Of course, the soldiers and police are themselves being bumped off in wholesale lots by the rebels who don't take anyone prisoner for long except for our hero and drunk , Theo (who really gets into Drunk Acting 101 with attention to details like always carrying a bottle, losing his shoes and never taking off his raincoat), although it does help that Julian, his Feminazi girlfriend, is one of the Head Rebels. I suppose her character is meant to represent the "good and pure women" in this era who drop everything to oppose the "Fascist" regime of the day.
Then our anti-hero Theo meets up with an elderly Michael Caine. A sort of "grandfather hippie" with long gray hair and they have a discussion on why women can't have children -- I couldn't follow the logic his explanation, but I think it was just a general denouncing of the Industrial Revolution as the root cause of the end of births, you know, typical Leftist cheap thought.
After that glorious scene, the story becomes a mad rush across a bleak Britain where the sun never shines, but finally our anti-hero Theo meets up with The Pregnant Girl, Kee (The first mother-to-be in twenty years who just happens to be a black and a single mom for reasons of multiculturalism and political correctness) whom he takes (I missed the reason) to something called the "Human Project." This makes both the Government and Rebels very unhappy and gives them an excuse to create an even higher body count in comic book style action and another video game for the personal computer.
Ronbo give this movie only a one star rating for being crude, stupid and anti-American.
How about more realistic movie about Britain twenty years into the future where Islam has taken over the country and by force converted all Britons to Islam, or killed all of them, except for one lone pregnant Christian woman who is attempting to flee Britain to Christian America with the help of an atheistic yet noble modern day knight and member of the Underground while hunted by various Islamic militas and the dark forces of the Islamic Republic of Britain?
5 - Miles Green
Im pretty sure you missed the point of the entire movie. Abortions make human life a disposable thing. Children of Men points out the extreme value of human life and why it should never be thrown away. The scene where Clive and the girl are walking out of the building being attacked near the end, both sides stop fighting to marvel at the miracle of life. This is the point! Life is not disposable and should never be thrown away.
6 - tony
please tell me something about the other filme realted to this "the probability of hope"