By Sara Pintilie/reporter
In 2027, women are infertile.
They have been for nine years, and the youngest person in the world, at the age of 18 years, four months, 16 hours and eight minutes, has just died.
This is the bleak dystopian future depicted beautifully in Children of Men.
Loosely based on the P.D. James novel, the film takes a harrowing journey into England’s future through the eyes of Theo, a chain-smoking, flask-toting bureaucrat (Sin City and Inside Man’s Clive Owen).
His only friend is Jasper (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Batman Begins’ Michael Caine), a political cartoonist past his prime.
Theo lives his life in a colorless, vodka-induced blur until his is kidnapped by the Fishes, a rebel underground group.
The head of the group, his ex-wife Julian, offers him money to get papers to transport an African refugee Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey).
He reluctantly agrees and accompanies the girl. In the midst of their travels, Theo learns Kee is more than a refugee. She is pregnant.
Their mission is to get Kee across the police state that was England to the coast so she can board the supposed Human Project vessel Tomorrow.
Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakban) is one my personal favorites as a director.
His body of work is unique in Tinseltown, and his directorial touch gives his films an intensity that cannot be reproduced.
He even had a hand in my new favorite movie, Pan’s Labyrinth (he helped produce).
Cuarón does an amazing job depicting the bleak future of Children of Men.
The film is never over the top, and it is almost unsettling because the audience can actually believe this situation could happen in 20 years.
It would have been easy to lead this film in an unrealistic direction, but fortunately, Cuarón’s directing keeps the momentum going without overreactions from the actors.
Cuarón’s dark vision and wonderful visual sense take on the movie’s bleak tone.
He gives it an engerizing undertone that keeps the audience watching in awe.
Owen was a great choice for the leading everyday man.
He has a certain hapless suave that works for the film.
Caine is fantastic, even as a hippie who lives in a secluded place and illegally sells pot. Caine is often underrated as an actor, and this film brings him to the forefront as an accomplished performer.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots, Dirty Pretty Things), Charlie Hunnam (Green Street Hooligans) and Julianne Moore (The Hours) create a strong, well-rounded supporting cast.
I give this movie four and a half stars out of five.
Though Children of Men didn’t get the best picture nomination it deserves, probably because of its sci-fi tag, it did get love in the cinematography, editing and adapted screenplay categories.
Children of Men got its name from Psalm 90:3: “Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.”
