Children of Men
The world mourns. Its youngest inhabitant has died. That’s the set-up in the opening of Children of Men, a dystopian reverse-quest picture from 2006, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine in an extremely odd turn as a superannuated hippie, long gray locks and all. What’s the big deal about the youngest person in the world? Well “Baby” Diego was a celebrity because he didn’t die the day he was born but 18 years later. He’s not the last person on Earth, just the last person delivered to it. No one has reproduced in 18 years and the entire world — except, for some reason, the United Kingdom — has collapsed because of it.
The UK has managed to hang on to some sliver of civilization — people still make up lame excuses, like Theo (Owen) our hero, to slack off work and the shops still sell nice paper cups of take-out coffee — but the country is in the midst of a fascistic backlash against a tsunami of immigrants who have made their way there.
Owen’s Theo is the ideal of the reluctant hero, so ideal that you can’t be sure he’s reluctant about the actual mission or just pathologically reluctant. Those whose criteria requires a character “arc” may well be disappointed. So-called “arc” is not an absolute requirement hereabouts – more a nice-to-have-when-called-for. A contrived, poorly acted arc can be worse than well-written character who stays well-written and well-acted the entire story. And so Owen’s one- or two-note performance is perfectly toned for this one and he is solidly within his range. He has the face for it. That anyone can keep a shred of sanity in this future hell would seem to require a severely modulated outlook. Too up or too down and you’d have lost your grip years before.
The quest is a reversed one because Theo is not pursuing a treasure, but working to deliver one to safety. He’s to escort Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) the first woman to turn up pregnant in 18 years, to a rumored and semi-legendary sanctuary. He’s enlisted/coerced by a band of pro-immigrant terrorists (he’s almost killed by one of their bombs) led by Julian (Moore) who just happens to be his ex-wife.
The garbled motivations of the terror group and the mechanics of the plot are where the film doesn’t quite deliver. The idea that the plight of illegal immigrants would be the overarching concern of 1970s-style radicals and their holistic hangers-on at a time when the world is plunged into profound anarchy is less plausible than the unexplained global infertility. A secondary faction comes into play and their motivation is even more opaque.
Much of the lack of clarity can be attributed to the mumble-your-lines naturalism of modern acting, combined with, to the American ear, the rapid-fire UK English patois. About a quarter of the dialogue was unintelligible. You get the gist, though, and the visually gripping world – post-apocalyptically speaking — the action and the fast pace left no desire to rewind or turn on the subtitles just to hear what the heck that guy actually said.
The dreaded shaky cam also rears its tiresome head during action scenes, of course, along with the requisite, blood-on-the-camera-lens. That and the mumbled lines and this is an unfortunately not uncommon case of the storytelling sacrificed on the altar of cinema realism. It’s a movie for cryin’ out loud. Would anyone miss it if the camera didn’t shake?
In any case there are also minor plot holes on the order of “How did he know she was there?” and “How did they track him down?” but these are mere quibbles in a film with a supremely primal emotional hook — the survival of the entire species — in a grimly imagined and photographed world. It hits a few more targets than it misses.
Loose Notes: There are stunts and there are stunts. Nothing spectacular here but one chase scene, unless it was done with CGI, has two guys getting knocked off their motorbikes, and it’s hard to see how they were not crippled or killed.
Michael Caine as Theo’s aged hippie mentor Jasper is a bit on the jolly side, but Caine is Caine and always improves any movie lucky enough to have him.
SF Signal, Science Fiction | bshears May 14, 2011 | 
Comments (0) 
