Children of Men (2006) Review

Children of Men (2006) opens with a long hand-held shot starting in a London cafe in which the news of the death of the youngest person on Earth is being broadcast to a transfixed crowd. As Clive Owen pushes through the tightly packed sea of aghast faces with his coffee the camera follows him out into the exaggerated decrepitude of future London. A few feet down road the camera repositions itself on his blindside documentary style. Still in the one shot the cafe explodes in a cloud of dust and glass, completely free of Michael Bay pyrotechnics, moving cameras and helicopters. It's such a refreshing intro; as a reviewer you know you're in for something special.

Let your imagination run riot for a second and imagine that film reviewers were frustrated film-makers. Children of Men is the movie they want to make. loosely adapted from P.D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men. The film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón and stars Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Caine. Reviewers of this generation grew up with some great post-apocalyptic visions of the future. We're talking Blade Runner, Half Life 2 and Akira. We watched the streets of our major cities come to resemble these nightmarish visions of police states and squalor. Film studies taught us that Hollywood treated us like babies by cutting constantly, telling us where to look, afraid of losing our attention. We could not be trusted with the freedom to roam the frame and have a more interactive experience with the film.

Then Tarantino re-introduced mainstream cinema to the judicious use of the long take and the incredible power it has to rachet up the tension and draw the audience gradually deeper and deeper into an illusion. Children of Men is the movie that we at Film Reviewer were despairing was never made any more. It's literate. It's shot in beautifully composed but unobtrusive long takes. It's action scenes are spectacular for their tension rather than their over baked CGI. The computer graphics are applied judiciously and are often invisible. The script is fascinating, the lines are memorable, the violence is untelegraphed and all the more shocking for it. Sweet Baby Jesus how does a mainstream movie manage to be exciting, spectacular, hard hitting, fast paced, complex, intelligent, political but not "bludgeoning-you-with-a-soapbox" political and do all of these things at the same time? We had been led to believe mainstream movies couldn't do that...

Children of Men is based on The Children of Men is a dystopian novel by P. D. James that was published in 1992 based on the idea that the youngest person on Earth has just died aged 18 years old. Your favourite areas of London have become poverty stricken wastelands designed to look less like Blade Runner and more like Mexico. All women are infertile, human beings are unable to reproduce, illegal immigrants are herded into concentration camps around Britain. London's streets are a grim sea of litter, bums and graffiti punctuated by digital images flashing warning messages, political slogans and advertisements from every available piece of real estate. This is not a glossy high-tech future, this is England used and broken. The representations of London in squalor are all the more hard-hitting because they are recognisable. What you can see on screen is a conscious attempt to avoid filming 'the future by numbers'. This dystopia is too close to reality for comfort.

When a young British-African girl, Kee played by Chiwetel Ejiofor is discovered pregnant it's a race against time to get her to safety before one of the warring factions or, even worse, the government makes her their political tool/property. For director Alfonso Cuarón life originates again from Africa, but Britain's harsh anti-immigration policy and civil war ravaged streets constantly endanger this one tiny glimmer of hope. Released in the US on Christmas day, the movie is unafraid to revel in its literary and Christian allusions. Kee's pregnancy is discovered in a barn, realisation of her condition results in exclamations of "Jesus Christ" or the sign of the cross. Like Mary and Joseph, Kee and Theo walk the long path to a safe haven for their unexpected newborn child. Can they escape the resistance movement known as the 'Fishes' (bible five SMACK-click-sign of the cross) and live to see the goodship Tomorrow?

Later a long take in a moving vehicle starts with a trip down memory lane for Theo Faron (Clive Owen) and his estranged wife, Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), moves smoothly into a motorcade ambush, a bicycle crash, a police chase and a shooting, all the while panning and searching out a good shot. It's a remarkable technical feat that required controlled camera movements, an intriguing car design, layers of CGI and ace stunt work. It's all done so expertly that a casual viewer may not even be aware that they have just witnessed a very special virtuoso directing performance. The tension of the scene would be nothing without the great close quarter acting of the cast within the car. The hard-hitting violence would be nothing without the beat perfect stunt work. The impact of the scene would be lost without the realism of the CGI. It's a truly special cinema moment, and one that makes you wonder whether a paradigm shift has been taking place in recent years.

Just before the credits roll, a London borough is turned into a full scale war zone a la Beiruit. The camera follows Owen through the bullet riddled Bexhill, ducking from one squib to the next. It's a huge, expertly choreographed documentary style take complete with accidentally blood spattered lens. Finally, the bullets gradually stop flying as the soldiers outside become aware of the unfamiliar sound of a baby's cry. The baby is carried through the tooled-up squadrons of soldiers whose confusion and shock convey without words a keen sense that if only every baby's life were considered this precious, an end to war around the world would come pretty quickly. You also realise that a good director can move you more powerfully by stopping the explosions than by 'upping the ante' and throwing more slow-motion kiss-kiss-bang-bang on the screen. Just as these thoughts are passing through your mind a bullet is fired. That shot is answered. Whatever was there potentially to be learned is lost forever. A moment of idealism punctuated the movie briefly, but realism is allowed to reclaim the screen. If a ceasefire is not happening in Iraq, you can be sure it's not happening in this movie either.

Despite it's bleak imagery the movie ends on a poignant note. From a hellish Bexhill, Theo and Kee escape by boat to meet a ship called Tomorrow. Every cast member has paid a huge price. As the boat emerges through the fog the viewer is offered an opportunity to find hope or despair in what they have just witnessed. For all it's futuristic themes and action packed episodes it is a profoundly realistic movie and one that magnifies and dramatises issues British society is already dealing with. It is a must see for any film lover and will go down in history as a classic sci-fi movie. This movie deserves more attention than a movie of this budget will normally receive. Unlike a surefire buster of blocks, this movie will get that attention over years rather than a few weekends over the summer.