Children of Men

'Children of Men' Trailer


Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine

"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."

-T.S. Eliot "The Hollow Men"

Humanity is dangling over the edge of the abyss in Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men" and it's hanging on by it's fingernails. A miraculously pregnant woman offers some hope for salvation, but as the savage fascism unfolds around her, we are forced to ask ourselves: Do we really deserve to survive?

Luckily we have Clive Owen, who's flip-flop clad protagonist provides an anchor of morality in a world where basic human decency has long-ago been set adrift. He is tasked with delivering the pregnant "Kee" (played with wild-eyed vulnerability by newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey) beyond the clutches of a corrupt British government and a group of freedom-fighters-turned terrorists and into the welcoming arms of a group commited to saving civilization known only as "The Human Project".

One of the biggest stars of this show is Alfonso Cuaron's brilliant cinematography. His police-state London and war-torn refugee camp present a vision of the future that looks disturbingly like the images we see on the news every night. The action sequences rip the audience out of its role of dispassionate observer and place it in the middle of white-knuckle gun fights and car chases. The single-cut, first-person fluidity of these scenes has to be seen to be believed.

My first piece of unsolicited advice in 2007 is this: GO SEE THIS MOVIE. It's a brilliant piece of filmmaking and an early frontrunner for my favorite movie of the year. I know, it's only January, but with most of the garbage coming out of Hollywood these days (see "Idiocracy" review below) I'm pretty confident in that pronouncement.

Score: 12/12 monkeys