Children of Men film review

certificate_15

CHILDREN OF MEN

Judging by his interpretation of P.D. James' novel, Alfonso Cuaron's stay in England, where he directed Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, appears to have left a very bleak impression on the Mexican director. Set in 2027, Children Of Men depicts a squalid, violent, graffiti-covered London with rubbish piled high everywhere, armed troops roaming the streets and public cages crammed with illegal immigrants. What makes the impact more powerful is that it feels all too real and not implausible. This vision of dystopian hell is not confined to England. After an unknown cause rendered women worldwide infertile, not one child has been born since 2009, resulting in a global meltdown of order.

Imagining what would become of the world under such circumstances is certainly an intriguing premise and one that Children Of Men does a disturbing job of recreating. What is lacking though is much of the substance that underlies such a scenario. There is little explanation of how women became infertile short of a few vague theories. There is also no detailed account of how the world has so rapidly degenerated into anarchy. Instead Children Of Men follows more the lines of a conventional thriller with its hero, Theo Faron (Clive Owen), undertaking a perilous mission that promises hope for man's future.

Faron is a mid-level bureaucrat who narrowly escapes death when a building is blown up in one of the random acts of terrorism that plague the country. Seeking quietude, he visits an old friend, Jasper (a wonderfully exuberant Michael Caine looking more like his old drinking buddy Richard Harris). A feature of the film is the way characters establish themselves only to disappear a short while later. This is exemplified by Julianne Moore's brief appearance as the radical activist Julian Taylor, one time partner of Theo and mother of their dead boy Dylan.

As leader of the terrorist group Fishes, Taylor abducts Theo, who she hasn't seen in almost twenty years, in an attempt to secure a travel pass for one of her group who harbors a critical secret, and who they are trying to smuggle out of the country. Theo ends up helping the woman, Kee (Clare Hope-Ashitey), try to reach the secret organization known as the Human Project, comprised of scientists in search of a cure for the mass infertility.