Children of Men

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Cast:
Clive Owen - Theo Faron



The year is 2027 and mankind is at the brink of collapse. Britain is the last outpost of “civilization”. But by the look of this so called civilization I would hate to see the rest of the world. Britain itself is a pretty unimaginable place - everyone is paranoid so outsiders are locked in cages. I would suspect that, though it is not elaborated upon, that these people are trying to flee their even-worse-off homes and so seek Britain as a refuge. There is also widespread crime and the country side is so dangerous you’d think that you were back in the days of the Germanic barbarians.

So what has caused all this. Well nothing short of a lack of children. The human race it seems has become infertile for reasons no one knows. The movie stars with the youngest human being - a eighteen year old dying. Our main man - Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is approached by his ex wife in order to get a young woman out of the country because she is black - and seen as a refugee by the British government. However she is no ordinary refugee. She is pregnant when nobody should be able to be pregnant.

In order to be transported across the country she needs bodyguards. But these bodyguards secretly want to use her and her child to rally their rebel causes which will of course put her and her child in more danger. Theo knows this and doesn’t want to lose this last bit of hope. In fact he will risk his own life to make sure this hope doesn’t die. Perhaps after losing his child and then his ex-wife it is all the hope he has left.

This movie is the darkest and most brutal I have seen since Apocalypse Now. There is ceaseless killing and violence through most of the movie as well as many scenes of refugees that are treated no better than those who resided in German concentration camps. In fact they are treated as sub-human by the British. I must give those who built the sets and the choreographer credit for creating such a doomsday atmosphere.

Despite its depictions of violence and inhumanity does it really seem all that impossible that such a thing would happen if the human race could no longer reproduce? It is many people’s hope in a better tomorrow that keeps them going. What is the point in living, in working if there is nothing to work for?

So maybe after you see this movie you will think twice about that screaming brat seated next to you in an airplane. Because of millions of brats like him or her we can have hope in the future - hard as that can be to believe.

2 ½ stars