In the year 2027, as envisioned in Alfonso Cuaron s Children of Men, most of the world s major civilizations have collapsed, global war rages on with no end in sight and the human race has become infertile. It s cure.
Apocalypse now, indeed.
In Britain - apparently the last country left standing, albeit under neo-fascist rule ministry job, his resigned, weary air indicative of a man who s just going through the motions because he can t think of anything else to do.
The movie, which is based on P.D.
James s novel, unfolds largely through Theo s eyes, charting his transformation from complacent office drone to political revolutionary willing to die for his cause. That brief description makes Brazil, but the two films could not be any less similar in tone, design, sensibility or overall intention.
This unsettling, gripping, often astonishing movie, which catapults the Mexican-born Cuaron ( Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the imaginative filmmakers, is primarily devoted to creating a highly detailed dystopian future with ominous resonance to our present day.
Despite the bleakness of that vision, Children of Men is also thrilling, both for its complex, vividly realized ideas.
Cuaron, who also co-wrote the screenplay, doesn t spend a lot of time on exposition: He uses visual cues to provide the particulars of this nightmarish, somewhat Orwellian England, with everything from graffiti sprayed on walls to headlines on as the action moves along.
to fill in the blanks.
Terrorism, prejudice, racial profiling and martial law are all matter-of-fact in Children of Men, and one of the most all seems. Some science-fiction requires a considerable leap of faith in the viewer, or a only requires the viewer has not lived in a cave for the past five years.
The plot is kick-started after Theo reunites with his former lover, Julian (Julianne Moore), now a revolutionary who seeks his help in smuggling an illegal refugee, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) out of the country.
Once Theo learns who Kee is and why she is so important, it is practically impossible for him to say no.
The rest of the one-hour, 45-minute Children of Men is essentially one long chase, with several prolonged sequences - like the roadside ambush of a car by a motorcycle gang, shot in one long uninterrupted take - that would be ridiculously exciting if they weren t so terrifying, too. Children of Men is essentially an action film, but it s the stakes Cuaron places become.
Opening today at Tinseltown USA, the movie is rated R for vulgar language, violence, gore, nudity, sexual situations and adult themes.
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