Shantih, Shantih, Shantih!

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2016)

"Children of Men" is set in 2027, where all women are infertile. But then Theo get's approached by an old friend of his, who wants him to reignite the flame of his activism and help her to bring the one pregnant women to safety.
That was my little synopsis of the movie. Now I'll discuss the more thecnical side of the film. First the directing. Alfonso Cuarón was responsible for this. He did a very good job at it. He used hand- held camera throughout the movie, which I generally don't like, but his use of it, felt so natural and fitted with the rough theme of the movie. Cuarón also used long takes, which created these beautiful scenes. The tension was built and he showed the background more in those longer scenes, so you could get a better feel of the movie. One of my favorite scenes of the movie was one of these long takes. The one I'm talking about is where Theo, Julian, Kee, Luke and Miriam are sitting in the car and get ambushed. I have a little analysis of that scene at the end of my review. Alfonso Cuarón was also able to bring a good chock factor to the movie. He did this in various ways, but most notably, for me at least, is the scene where Jasper get's shot. In that scene he let's the gunshot echo through the forst, just like our reaction hangs around for a bit. There is a lot to say about that scene, but I already have one scene analysis, which is enough for this review. The editing was also very well handled. In the long takes, there were probably cuts (I wasn't able to spot any, but there obviously were some hidden with cgi), but the fact that I wasn't able to spot any is a sign of good editing. If you are a more experienced movie-goer than me, you would probably notice them, though. The soundtrack was remarkable. It stood in contrast with the often references to older pieces of art, that were also visualized in some scenes.
The acting was magnificent. Clive Owen, who played Theo, gave his best performance yet. He was absolutely remarkable. I can't comprehend why he didn't even get an Oscar nod. He gave so much extra to his character and he was a charismatic hero. He achieved well in the emotional scenes. Not only Clive Owen was good, but Julianne Moore too. She was marvelous in her role, except I would've liked to see her more in the movie, just because she was so good. The chemistry between her and Clive Owen worked very well, and gave a fantastic on-screen romance. Michael Caine played something different that I'm used from him, and I've got to admit that this is one of his most amusing roles I've seen him in. He was funny and acted the part flawlessly. The actress of Kee, Clare-Hope Ashitey, too was good. The actors that I haven't mentioned were mostly good. There wasn't someone who did a bad job, or someone who broke the immersion.
The screenplay was written by a lot of people, so I had my doubts with it. Most of the time when it's written by that many, it turns out badly. But it turned out good this time. This wasn't the part of the movie, that stood out to me. The story was simple, but effective and the characters were good. You cared about the main character due to a lot of subtle character development. The dialogue felt very natural and didn't feel out of place at all. The story progressed well and the villains of the movie had a good reason to hunt down Kee. This shows both ways to view a situation. The jokes were good and never got old. Micheal Caines line delivery for those jokes was on point.
And here to end my review is my analysis. This scene (the car scene) stood out in particular, because of the fantastic cinematography and tension-building. The cinematography in that scene reached that level of goodness, because it constantly managed to keep the framing right. You'd expect that some pieces of that scene were ugly-looking, due to the lack of movement for the cameraman, but this wasn't the case. The tension-building was also something that I mentioned This is because the build up to the action was done brilliantly. Alfonso Cuarón first showed us that Theo and Julian were really close before - we knew this already, but here he explores it a bit more - and he also shows them in quite a relaxed state. But then the flaming cars roles down, and panic starts to occur. The beep of the car works as the tension-building score on it's own: the high monotone pitch. Now, because you are more invested with the characters, you are on the edge of your seat, because you don't want anything to happen to them. Then, terror happens. From loud noises we go to silence with the beep tone again. Just to show the contrast again, just like before. Then: peace to violence. Now: loud noises to silence. But when you think it's over, the cops arrive as well. Everything seems to be going fine, but then Luke shoots them. This comes as shock, because we were thinking it was going to go well. Luke asked for the passports, so you'd think that it would just go by, without any problem. The brilliant part of the scene is also that it doesn't need any music to build up tension. It needs visuals and that's something that I found very impressive.
So that was my review and analysis of the movie. It was a very well directed and acted one, with fantastic long takes, who immerse you into the film even more. Alfonso Cuarón created a world, that was believable and harsh.
9.5/10