CHILDREN OF MEN

Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Great Expectations)
Starring: Clive Owen, Jullianne Moore, Michael Caine

No matter how good science fiction gets, it's almost always a little overdone, even silly in its reach. When an author has to invent a world from scratch I imagine it's difficult to find the hidden insights down deep, they're spending all their time making up the big picture. The stories are always about all-encompassing ideas like the 'fate of the universe' or the 'end of mankind'. They're about societies, not people. And no, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm simply observing. Children of Men at the least fits this observation. It's a futuristic nativity story about society crumbling. We've got Christian symbolism, governments and societies collaspsing, changing morality - religion, society, government, ethics: all those 'big picture' parts of a good science fiction story.

Despite all these big themes, Children of Men is at its heart a chase picture. The main characters spend most of the film running away from the bad guys. The body around that heart is a beatiful thing indeed, though. Cuaron has made a viscerally engaging picture that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's infinitely smarter and better made than V for Vendetta. I think it's even more engaging than Minority Report, the fine Spielberg bit of science fiction. In the end, the message is perhaps a bit overdone, but that hardly matters. The filmaking is excellent and lends itself to the big themes.

Children of Men begins with a wonderful premise: In its science fiction world (20 or so years from now) humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. We don't know why, but we just can't have babies. Rather than a cataclysm killing off mankind, we see the impending end of our species creep up on us as the last remaining peoples get older and die off. It's a trainwreck in slow motion. It's a wonderful setting.

Clive Owen's character is not particularly important, except by chance. He happens to become entangled with a girl who managed to get herself knocked up. She's not particularly special either, except for the baby thing. Of course in a world without babies what could be more special? We then follow these two as they are chased. In the film's world England is one of the few societies that still mostly works, while others around it have completely collapsed. Illegal immigration has become overwhelming. England's police state spends huge amounts of resources keeping immigrants locked up and out of society. A mystic-political faction called "The Fishes" - hmm, just like those little Christian decals on the back of cars - hopes to use the girl and her baby as their personal Jesus and Mary. For her part, the girl just wants to get out of the country and into the hands of a supposedly benevolent group of scientists (and we assume non-religious rationalists) called "The Human Project". No one knows if this group even exists. There's just the hope.

The excitement in this film isn't really with the themes, although they certainly don't hurt. The joy here is in the slightly twisted world that's been created, and in the moment to moment action and events. There are wonderful glimpses of a ragged future. There are engrossing and terrifying battle scenes. There's stunning thrills and even quite a bit of comedy. There's just a lot that's interesting in this film. The story is completely engrossing from beginning to end. I've noted that the direction is marvelous, but the acting deserves a bit of praise as well. I don't think any of the acting was quite Oscar quality, but Moore, Caine and especially Clive Owen were all quite good. Owen's character, while dreary and almost faceless in a way, remains interesting and holds the movie together. He's an anti-hero that becomes a hero hero.

Standouts: Cuaron's direction was exceptional. I could imagine an Oscar nomination for this work.
Blowouts: I'm not sure if I liked the occasional imagery and plot points that tried to make the movie "relevant to the here and now". I.e. Topical a la Iraq and Bush.

Grade: A-