Spellbinding; good companion to V for Vendetta

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2007)

In the near future, mankind is in deep trouble. For some reason, all of the women on Earth have gone infertile. Consequently, everyone's in a state of panic, and anarchy has more or less broken out in the now-dystopian England. Illegal immigrants are swept up and deported, if they're lucky - many are instead shot down in cold blood. Things look mighty grim as the populace slowly realizes that its own extinction is imminent unless a baby can be born.
A former activist, Theo (Clive Owen), is asked by a former flame, Julian (Julianne Moore) to acquire transit papers - shades of Casablanca - for a young woman who's trying to get to The Human Project, a band of rebels well outside of London. The woman, named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), is pregnant - the first pregnancy in the world in 18 years. However, the rebels don't want Kee to fall into the hands of the oppressive regime, because they're afraid Kee might be "disappeared." So Theo agrees to attempt to transport Kee to a safe ocean passage to The Human Project, in order to save the human race.
Children of Men is an exhilarating story that simply never lets up, following Kee's journey from when she meets Theo (and is accompanied by several helpers of varying degrees of morality) through to the bittersweet, tragic ending. It's not giving anything away to note that bad things happen, and not all who support Kee's cause will live to see the end of her tale.
The London in Children of Men is apparently a fair representation of the Baghdad of the real world, with disparate factions at war with each other to assume control in a largely lawless (outside of walled areas) society. People are shot without warning and with little provocation, all in the name of protecting the "good" people. Theo, as a bureaucrat, is largely unaffected by the chaos other than minor inconveniences, but when he's accosted by Julian's cohorts (the ol' throw a sack over his head and toss him in a van bit) and sees Julian for the first time in many years, he throws his hat into the ring as well, I think partly for old times' sake (he used to protest with Julian).
The unrelenting violence in the movie is often jarring, unsettling the viewer and setting one's teeth on edge. Political atmosphere aside, one desperately hopes Kee is able to succeed in her quest, partly because of the whole saving-mankind bit but also because Kee herself - and those immediately around her - is so believable and likable. She's no shrinking violet, but she's also not of the same stripe as the rebels (gritty and raging against the machine); she simply wants to have her baby safely.
The entire cast is dazzling, although the overall success of the film really hinges on the growing relationship between Theo and Kee; Ashitey more than carries her weight in a tough, complex film, and Owen turns in his usual solid work. Moore is ravishing in the few scenes in which she appears, eyes alight, face glowing, you completely believe she's become this heralded leader of an insurgency. She's simply divine. As is Sir Michael Caine, in a showy (although somewhat unrecognizable) role as an aging hippie/ex-political cartoonist who's the cheery, bouncy foil to Theo's ordinarily morose, workmanlike attitude. Caine's wonderful, although seen only briefly.
The best part about the movie is, really, the ending. I give nothing away by noting that the film isn't wrapped up in a neat little box, with confetti and unicorns and flowers falling from the sky. The story does have an air of hope about it, but we do not get closure. I think that's for the best; imagine if we had an ending in which Kee and Theo ran off into the sunset, her baby saved and life returning to those pre-anarchy days. Instead of cheating us with such a trite Hollywood ending, the filmmakers decided to continue with the overall maybe bad, maybe good tone, to the betterment of the movie.