A Breathtaking Dystopian Vision

Rating: 10/10 (3 May 2007)

'Children of Men' is an outstanding movie that rewards multiple viewing thorough the incredibly detailed and multilayered world that Cuaron et al seem to so effortlessly conjure. Their world is the most authentic creation of a dystopian future ever put to film, living and breathing with a terrifying realism and believability. The cool hued, monochromatic and grainy cinematography combined with the hand held camera-work and dizzying, one-shot scenes only enhance the documentary feel of the film. The story is simple, and the performances solid, but ultimately all exist to service the powerful emotional punch of seeing images of torture and repression  familiar to us from archival photographs of Nazi concentration caps, Soviet gulags, Turkish prisons, Japanese POW camps, and Abu Ghraib  transposed on to the streets of London and Bexhill. Of course, we should appreciate such horrors without theatrics and CGI parlor tricks, but the visceral empathy that such images conjure is as fascinating as it is horrifying, and drives home the horrors of dictatorship, guerrilla warfare, insurgency and terrorism.
Though all the performances are excellent, Michael Caine really stands out in a revelatory performance that steals the movie. His character stands as a moral rock at the center of the film and a lesser actor could easily have missed the character's potential. Caine deserved at least award nomination. Oana Pellier is brilliant as the gypsy Marichka.
The conservative criticism of the movie is baffling and reveals more about the oddly paranoid and defense whining of the right than about the movie itself.
Though set within the context of a Western dictatorship, 'Children of Men' clearly marks out the Fishes as the real enemy  treacherous and violent. They are not suit-wearing yuppies of the capitalist system, or church-going suburban paragons of Red State heroism. Instead, the Fishes, the bad guys, are dreadlock wearing, Buddhist chanting, commune living hippies. They're not only liberals, they're caricatures of liberals. The whole movie plays as a critique of terrorism and brutal dictatorships. By showing in graphic detail the effects of political tyranny and terrorism, the movie asks, wouldn't YOU want to be saved from this life? And in doing so, asks us to understand the moral validation for war in Iraq. But of course, the conservative right has never really been that interested in multiple readings and subtle shifts of perspectives. They'd rather just cry foul every time their increasingly fragile and delicate sensibilities are offended.
'Children of Men' is an incredible movie  genuinely thought provoking and powerful  that deserves as large an audience as possible and a far superior DVD!