Children of Men

The second film I saw at the cinema this year was Children of Men. I had heard many good things about the film but hadn't (and still haven't) read the book by P.D. James upon which it is based. Director Alfonso Cuarón was familiar to me only via Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and so I was in unfamiliar territory as far as that whole auteur thing goes.

The story takes place in England some 20 years in the future. Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, is attempting to get a cup of coffee at a local café but the place is bursting with patrons watching the television above the counter which has a news program reporting that the youngest person alive had died. The individual was only 18 years old. You see, the women had become barren in this world. This is never explained in the film and it's all the better for it. With the clock ticking down on humanity's time left on Earth, people became quite angry and most countries have suffered devastating attacks. Only England survives more or less intact. This being the case, the country is cracking down on immigrants hoping to maintain order and perhaps the true blood of the Britons.

After extricating his coffee from the overly-crowding café, Theo steps out outside, takes a few steps, and is jolted when the coffeehouse explodes. There are radicals afoot. Radicals that demand that the government treat immigrants humanely and let them stay. We learn that Theo used to be a radical but now he has drifted into selfish indifference and is an office drone. Still, he maintains a friendship with Jasper (Michael Caine), the terminally groovy hippie who lives in bucolic seclusion with his catatonic wife. Jasper adds some comic relief to an otherwise bleak film that is awash in grays and browns, just like Cuarón's Harry Potter effort. With this film, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki has perhaps found a commercial enough film to stake his claim as the heir to Vittorio Storaro. (But he's gonna have to fight it out with Janusz Kaminski.) In addition to desaturated colors, there are (very) long takes and some masterful Steadicam work here.

Theo gets tapped by former lover Julian (Julianne Moore) to help out the radicals. Julian and Theo were together back in the day fighting The Man together. While Theo has opted out, Julian remains committed. She has Theo approach his wealthy cousin to get travel papers for them. This scene is notable for progressive rock fans as we get a healthy dose of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson on the soundtrack. In addition, the view from the cousin's home overlooks the Battersea Power Station and Cuarón was nice enough to throw in the giant inflatable pig from Pink Floyd's Animals. Theo gets the requisite paperwork. And more. He must accompany whomever it is that the radicals want to hide.

This ends up being Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who, against all odds, is pregnant. What follows is a chase and after some double-crossing, Theo and Kee find themselves fleeing, not only the authorities, but also the radicals. The final act takes place in a seaside internment camp where Kee delivers her child, is kidnapped by the radicals, and rescued by Theo. This part of the film is tense, action-packed, and all in one shot. The Steadicam operator earned his or her pay that day because the shot lasted for like half an hour. In the scene, the radicals, having captured Kee, hole up in a tenement which is then laid siege by the army. Theo sneaks in to rescue her. The scene where he leads her down the stairs and out of the building brought tears to my eyes. Kudos to Cuarón for not ruining it with sappy music. While I normally don't like the kind of ending that we have in Children of Men, I thought it worked alright and perhaps couldn't have been any other way. Humanity wasn't quite saved.

The film has much to recommend it. The acting was great (although I thought Julianne Moore was miscast) as was the cinematography. Lubezki has also shot, amongst others, Terrence Malik's The New World, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. I will go see any movie he shoots, regardless of director or actor. The guy is fantastic. If you've seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban then a shot or two will look familiar. Think the wanted poster for Sirius Black at one end of the screen and Harry Potter at the other.

I'm trying to figure out just how hopeful the films is. On the one hand, it ends with the intimation that humanity is saved. But on the other, most of the major characters who hold out hope and show kindness & humanity as humanity fades away are killed.

There is also a thing with non-human animals. I'd have to watch the film again to really get it down to notice a pattern but it was obvious that our furry friends were not affected by whatever it was that stole the fecundity from women. At the first safehouse that Theo and Kee end up at, there is a dog. A guard says that the dog doesn’t usually like people but it does like Theo. Later in the film, he and Kee are waiting at an abandoned school to meet up with a police officer who will help them get into the internment camp. While wandering the long-abandoned hallways, Theo hears a noise which turns out to be a deer. And the gypsy woman at the camp has one of those little yapper dogs that I find so annoying. A reviewer somewhere called Children of Men the "Blade Runner of the 21st century" or some such thing but it really isn't. In the latter, animals were extinct so electric ones had to be made. The animals here are all fine and they can reproduce. I'm not sure – I'll have to watch again to get this down.

Perhaps it is Jasper that is the real beacon of kindness and hope. After all, he maintains a sense of humor and geniality but, more importantly, he cares for his catatonic wife despite the government having issued suicide kits. And I think that the only scenes that aren't drab and gray are those with him. Theo is the protagonist and, through circumstances, he regains inner strength and the best in him is eventually brought out. But Jasper never lost that strength in the first place.