Children of Men
When a film successfully draws a bleak picture of the future using a simple concept coupled with carefully crafted photography, you know you are in for an unusual treat. Indirectly and slightly resembling the visuals of the futuristic apocalypse of the Half-Life universe and inspired by Hitchcockian masterful filmmaking, Children of Men is sure to leave a mark for years to come.
Admittedly, the film starts out slow, but for a reason—perfecting the stage setting of London in 2027. The news of the demise of the youngest human on the planet followed by an explosion rocking the gray city streets starts to set the atmosphere of an extremely darkened path ahead. We live in a world where all women are sterile and procreation is a thing of the past. In a panic, as we all know, powerful men take control, the disenfranchised fight back with words, action, and bombs, and condom industries take a hit.
Theo (Clive Owen) is a former activist turned bureaucrat living the chaotic life as it comes at him. He gets entangled in a humanity-altering mission by joining forces with his ex-wife and revolutionary underground leader Julian (Jullianne Moore) in protecting an unexpected yet valuable discovery; the first pregnant girl. While infertility is the major cause of this quagmire, there are underlying commonalities between this society and ours these days–fear, speech and thought control, fascistic tendencies, etc.
The thing that most amazed me about Children of Men is the magnificent filmmaking. The parts which received my complete attention were the single continuous shot scenes. The first was the outlaws chasing our party’s car. My jaws slowly dropped as the camera pierced through the destroyed city buildings, with raging street battles and deafening tank shells, all in single shot sweeps. How director Alfonso Cuarón managed to do this is beyond me, but he did.
This is easily a must-see since it is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.
