Film Review: Children Of Men (2006) B-

Date Viewed: 11/08/06
Venue: Universal

Children Of Men is the most brilliantly maddening film I have ever seen. Director Alfonso Cuaron has crafted a near masterpiece of pulse-pounding, thought-provoking cinema. However, Children Of Men fumbles the ball inches from the goal line.

The year is 2027, and mankind can no longer reproduce. The world has gone to shit; England exists as a xenophobic fear zone (an obvious, if morbid extrapolation of the world today). Clive Owen plays a middle-aged bureaucrat, Theo, apathetic to the core, who winds up caretaker of a young pregnant black woman, Kee. The first pregnancy anyone has seen in nearly twenty years. Now our bureaucrat must escort Kee and her precious cargo safely out of England and to a mysterious peace group called The Human Project.

There are a few quibbles to be had in the setup. At no time is any possible explanation given for mankind’s sudden infertility. Nor is there even any lip service paid to such things as frozen eggs and cloning. In the end, that’s not what this story is about, but the omission of any sort of dialog regarding the science of man’s dilemma took me out of the film a bit. I mean, I didn’t want it to become an episode of Star Trek, but a few lines of throwaway dialog couldn’t have hurt, could they?

Children Of Men actually evokes two disparate films: V For Vendetta and Saving Private Ryan. The first half’s bleak and paranoid British society evokes V’s totalitarian state, and as Theo guides Kee through England’s dangerously violent war zone-like ghettos (established for the dreadful illegal immigrants, mind you), you can’t help but be reminded of Spielberg’s war epic.

What works so well here is an overall sense of bleakness and pessimism. The world has become a dirty, nasty place. This is reflected in not only the set design, but in the characters as well; they’re worn creatures whose hopes have been replaced with sarcastic fatalism.

However, what really sets Children Of Men apart is tension. This is an incredibly intense and violent film. Every single character is in danger in every single frame of film. There is no relenting, and there is no remorse; any character can be killed without warning at any time. Director Curaon makes masterful use of long, five minute-plus shots in these action sequences to firmly place us in the characters’ world.

Now all that sounds great…but why am I giving Children Of Men a B-? To put it simply, I didn’t like the ending. Not to say it’s anti-climactic, because on paper it’s serviceable, but it’s far too abrupt to work dramatically, especially considering all the hardship our characters have been through. Alfonso Cuaron does such a wonderful job taking us on this arduously rough and heart-wrenching journey that I felt we as viewers deserve something more meaningful to complete the story.