mini Review: Children of Men
During my visit to State College this weekend, I had the pleasure of helping Hannah & Jay set up their swanky new 7.1 surround sound home theatre system. Not content with just merely the sublime beauty of wires well connected, we completed the job with a screening of Children of Men midafternoon. The following is a short review:
Children of Men is set in what may have been the most bleak dystopian future I’ve seen in cinema to date. The year is 2027 and the world is an absolute disaster following a major collapse of the American empire and its dependent nations. To quote the movie, “Only Britain soldiers on.” We meet our primary character, Theo (Clive Owen) as he walks out of a crowd of coffee shop patrons mourning the death of the world’s youngest human and into the wreckage of London. Moments before a bomb rips through the café, no less.
From here, we are swept into the harsh reality of director Alfonso Cuarón’s imagining. Refugees from across the globe are openly herded into containment cages to be shuttled to ghetto cities turned concentration camps. Worse still, not a single child has been born for 18 years. With so little hope for the continuation of mankind, the last humans are left widening the gap between the ultra rich and the rest of society. A fascist government subscribes heavily to preemption – even against its own citizens. The populace is left to the Quietus home suicide kit and increasingly desperate spiritual and political organizations.
But, what happens when it becomes evident that the incurable infertility may perhaps not be all-encompassing? Can Theo help the only pregnant woman on Earth reach the safety of a mysterious hospital ship called “Tomorrow?”
This film left me with an incredible sense of dread: not for the Sci-Fi idea of global infertility so much as for the dead on depiction of a world more bent on the assurance of Homeland Security than on social justice. I have to say, there were several painful scenes that left me with a lump in my throat and even a tear in my eye. The consistency and believability of Cuarón’s 2027 coupled with a beautiful score and stellar performances was an emotional whirlwind to say the least.
Most definitely four stars.
