Let's face it: last week truly and undoubtedly sucked in the real world. So what better way to forget the pressure cooker bombs, fertilizer plant explosions, and ricin-filled letters of today than to watch a movie set in a dystopian future where every country but Britain has collapsed and oh yeah everyone is infertile for some unexplainable reason? Ah, the escape of the cinema!
Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men is hard to watch in the best possible way.
Set in London, 2027, no children have been born in almost two decades. The youngest person on Earth, Baby Diego, has just been stabbed to death senselessly after he (like the childish reality star he is) rudely refuses an autograph request. Theo (Clive Owen), a minor bureaucrat with a bottle stowed safely in his breastpocket, stumbles into a terrorist bombing. Then, he finds himself hooded, dragged into a conversion van, and face-to-face with his terrorist-cum-pacifist ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore). Unwillingly recruited into reviving his activist former self, Theo is soon escorting an illegal immigrant, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to the Human Project, a possibly mythical collection of scientists working on the infertility problem on an island outside the fascist British government's control.
I don't want to spoil the plot for those who haven't seen this yet, so I'll stop there.
What you should know is that this film is a master course in authorial and directorial restraint. The world of the film is doled out systematically in bits and pieces - direct exposition, unless necessary, is strictly avoided. Long tracking shots from Theo's viewpoint are preferred over cutting between different characters. Resisting the urge to stage shoot-em-up exciting action set pieces, the battles in this movie are viewed through Theo's lens as a series of unsettling, senseless existential threats - which (I can only imagine) war must really feel like to the noncombatants. Rather than answering every question it raises, the film trusts the audience and gives it enough information to fill in the missing pieces on its own. By plunging the audience into Theo's world without a safety net, Cuaron creates a visceral and truly discomfiting viewing experience. Especially discomfiting in that the world of Children of Men doesn't feel all that different from our own.
Nearly equally as masterful as Cuaron's direction is Clive Owen's performance. Owen is not one of my favorite actors, but seriously, the man was born to wear a trenchcoat and the hangdog expression of bitter disappointment Theo bears here. Restrained as well, Owen gives us just enough to know the pain underneath without diluting the strength of will necessary for his character.
Did I mention Michael Caine's indelible performance as Jasper, the heroic hippie pothead? No? I'm an asshole. He's great too. But he's Michael Caine. It goes without saying, amiright?
We really appreciated this blog for a reason to watch these performances and this film again. It really is a masterpiece.
Whether to keep it is a tougher question. I'm not sure we've watched it since buying it in 2007 or so. And, as I stated to begin, it's a tough movie to watch. Not one we're likely to watch again for the fun of it. But. It's so damn good. And because it wasn't a major hit nor crowned with laurels at the Oscars, I'm not sure it will be easy to locate in non-digital form in 2027 (at which point, yes, I sincerely doubt we'll be watching films on DVD). Just to be safe, we ought to keep this one.
FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER
NEXT UP: CHINATOWN
PS: A list of our first 40 films, with keep or pitch verdicts and links to all reviews will probably be up first.
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