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Review #377 of 365
Movie Review of Children of Men (2006) [R] 109 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $14.75
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 2nd Seen: 24 January 2007
Time: 11:20 p.m.
Film's Official Website Film's Official Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Screenplay by: Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también), Timothy J. Sexton (Walkout), David Arata (Spy Game), Mark Fergus (Consequence), and Hawk Ostby (Consequence) based on P.D. James's novel, Children of Men
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Clive Owen (Inside Man) • Julianne Moore (Freedomland) • Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots) • Charlie Hunnam (Hooligans) • Danny Huston (Marie Antoinette) • Claire-Hope Ashitey (Shooting Dogs) • Peter Mullan (On a Clear Day) • Pam Ferris ("Rosemary & Thyme") • Michael Caine (The Prestige) • Milenka James (Talk)
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Note: This is a spoiler review with plot points revealed INCLUDING the ending. If you would prefer to read a non-spoiler review first, click here.
Although Children of Men does not hold up quite as well to a second viewing, there is not doubt Alfonso Cuarón's haunting, nearly nihilistic adaptation of the near human future on earth, will stick in the soul for ages to come. The second time through it's a very different film. You know, of course, that the main objective is, or you can guess as much, fulfilled. The closing scene has Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) sitting with Theo (Clive Owen) sitting in the little row boat outside of Bexhill Immigration Processing Center by the designated buoy with the ship Tomorrow approaching. We don't know for certain if Kee and her new baby, Dylan, make it safely into the boat. Maybe they just take the baby? Maybe they fall into the water and drown, who knows. But, we can believe this chapter of the epic is closed, and only hope remains. And one must be left with hope given what Theo went through just getting Kee to that buoy. Some have argued that this ending is a cop out, that we should have seen them arrive safely at the mysterious island and find that there are dozens of children there with their mothers and fathers. This would be the hope the film deserves to deliver. But, alas, that's not the ending chosen.
A second viewing also affords more understanding of Julian's relationship with Theo and the pain each has endured over the death of Dylan, the impact it had on them and, indeed, the corresponding pain endured by the millions and millions of baby-less couples the world over. Indeed, there is more time to contemplate the things the film leaves out, such as all the emotional angst women who have the urge to mother a child but can no longer do so, is more omnipresent. The changes in a society that has no children were very obviously noted in the first review, but a second viewing makes these things seem even more surreal and profound. The second viewing darkens and deepens the consequences of a couple of pointed political perspectives for audiences today. The long-term trouble with legalized xenophobia and immigration bashing, for example, as well as governments gone mad with their power, stand out as two. The former, in a second viewing, is even more starkly pointed. How do the most civilized people on the planet turn so quickly into shallow shells of the Nazi-esque storm troopers they fought in WWII? The Bexhill Immigration processing camp is slightly one step above a Nazi concentration camp. From prisoner treatment to the removal of all articles of value from those they imprison to the eventual subjugation to whims of racist guards and gangs and a thriving black market economy ruled by gang violence and despair, there is nothing humane nor civilized about it. Hence 'the uprising' of the immigrant groups and those that support them—including the cell ruled at first by Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) and the holder of Kee. Note that Julian had planned to deliver Kee to the Human Project, but her second in command, Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor) had other plans. His plan was to use Kee and her baby to help the solidify the effect of the uprising. Kee was an immigrant, and if she might hold the key to humanities future, this would prove to the polite society, that which remained of it anyway, the usefulness of immigrants and the narrow mindedness of their treatment of immigrants and beliefs toward them. Understanding the complexity of Luke's character, the second time around, is a bit easier to do, as well. He is, after all, the essence of a misguided freedom fighter who mistakes the notion of using grave acts of violence as justified for his cause, utilizing the tactics of his oppressors as obligatory revenge, and killing innocent people for his cause as necessary to achieve his aims. In other words, he is not a follower of Gandhi.
A second viewing also affords more understanding of Julian's relationship with Theo and the pain each has endured over the death of Dylan, the impact it had on them and, indeed, the corresponding pain endured by the millions and millions of baby-less couples the world over. Indeed, there is more time to contemplate the things the film leaves out, such as all the emotional angst women who have the urge to mother a child but can no longer do so, is more omnipresent. The changes in a society that has no children were very obviously noted in the first review, but a second viewing makes these things seem even more surreal and profound. The second viewing darkens and deepens the consequences of a couple of pointed political perspectives for audiences today. The long-term trouble with legalized xenophobia and immigration bashing, for example, as well as governments gone mad with their power, stand out as two. The former, in a second viewing, is even more starkly pointed. How do the most civilized people on the planet turn so quickly into shallow shells of the Nazi-esque storm troopers they fought in WWII? The Bexhill Immigration processing camp is slightly one step above a Nazi concentration camp. From prisoner treatment to the removal of all articles of value from those they imprison to the eventual subjugation to whims of racist guards and gangs and a thriving black market economy ruled by gang violence and despair, there is nothing humane nor civilized about it. Hence 'the uprising' of the immigrant groups and those that support them—including the cell ruled at first by Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) and the holder of Kee. Note that Julian had planned to deliver Kee to the Human Project, but her second in command, Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor) had other plans. His plan was to use Kee and her baby to help the solidify the effect of the uprising. Kee was an immigrant, and if she might hold the key to humanities future, this would prove to the polite society, that which remained of it anyway, the usefulness of immigrants and the narrow mindedness of their treatment of immigrants and beliefs toward them. Understanding the complexity of Luke's character, the second time around, is a bit easier to do, as well. He is, after all, the essence of a misguided freedom fighter who mistakes the notion of using grave acts of violence as justified for his cause, utilizing the tactics of his oppressors as obligatory revenge, and killing innocent people for his cause as necessary to achieve his aims. In other words, he is not a follower of Gandhi.
"Undeniably Children of Men is an incredible film that forces one to contemplate the nature of human kind and its relevance to the planet as a whole. "
The incredible single cam shots in the film heighten the tension and the will to survive as Theo races to keep Kee and her baby safe and out of the hands of all the wrong people. Indeed, the sets, cinematography, lighting, costumes and design in general were all beautiful at rendering this bleak world to come. The most frightening thing about the film is how easy it is to see this as our future. Are we driving ourselves down a path toward self-destruction? If so, what can we do now to stop it? Must we just accept it as our fate, or can we change course, right now, toward something else? If so how and what? Perhaps this is one aspect of the ending that could have and should have been different. Because it leaves us without answers, because it dooms us to use our own imagination as to whether Kee and Dylan make it back to the Human Project, and for all we know the boat is sunk by British military jets just after it departs, and because we have so many gloomy prophecies weaved into the narrative of our human consciences from the Mayan Calendar reset to the Biblical Apocalypse, does the film give us any reasons for hope or answers for how to change the world? No, none. Faith must be placed in the hands of one, vigilant, barefooted man compelled to join a hopeless mission to save all of humanity from extinction. There is no rallying of world peace toward a common solution, and this, it would seem, would be the only way to solve the problem. As usual, instead, we turn inward toward our own selfish savagery the world's experienced over and over again as we combat each other to claim resources resorting to fair trade only as a last resort. How shallow are we as a species? The film gives us very little hope for our survival while pointing out all too directly our fatal flaws.
Undeniably Children of Men is an incredible film that forces one to contemplate the nature of human kind and its relevance to the planet as a whole. When threatened with apparently unpreventable extinction what road would we really take. Would we go out with a bang…a whimper…despair…inhumanely…or would we choose a noble path of preservation of the positive contributions of our legacy and attempt to restore the balance of nature upended by our world-wide spread and consumption-based lifestyles? It should do the world of good for every person to take time to contemplate this very question not just on a global or societal level but as it applies to hundreds of tiny decisions we make each day each with its own butterfly effect on the future ahead.
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Other Projects Featuring Children of Men (2006)
Cast Members
Clive Owen
• Julianne Moore • Chiwetel EjioforCharlie Hunnam
• Danny Huston • Claire-Hope AshiteyPeter Mullan
• Pam Ferris • Michael CaineMilenka James
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Co-Screenwriters
Alfonso Cuarón
• Timothy J. Sexton • David ArataMark Fergus
• Hawk Ostby| Book | DVD | VHS |
| CD |
Children of Men (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
It is 2027; and, since 2003, mankind has been unwilling or unable to see the signs falling into place that his fragile future is but a few decades away from coming to an end. For reasons scientists cannot explain, all women on the planet have become infertile; and, by 2027, most of the world's governments will have collapsed into utter chaos as the world's civilized people fall into complete despair. Thus is the basis for dark film, Children of Men, based on P. D. James's novel. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, and Michael Caine, all deliver outstanding performances. Though, in the end, it gets bogged down in an elaborate chase scene; psychologically, the film is one of the year's most powerful as director Alfonso Cuarón's brilliant vision of the future, perhaps, correctly forces contemplation of the fragility of man's existence and the long-term consequences of his decisions.
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