Witty and moving drama

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2006)

Papers of transit? A city under the jackboot and a furtive underground? A man who sticks his neck out for nobody but has an idealistic past? Well, Clive Owen, here's looking at you, kid. The man has aged like fine wine. I don't share the negatives about him doing the rounds on these boards. He is a gorgeous man with a charm that while not Bogey, is certainly winning. And you get two leading ladies for the price of one.
I do wish the trailer had not given away the shock opening. It made me jump anyway. Those expecting a bleak drama from said trailer will be surprised by how funny the film is, although the writer often wipes the grin from your face with a wallop to the jaw. There is some grinding agitprop to get through but it is the director's eye for the little details of life that wins you over in terms of authenticity, although there is one glaring cliché when a man is about to meet his maker.
'Children of Men' may not be a keeper, post-apocalyptic dramas being a dime a dozen nowadays. But it is definitely worth putting your coat on for once. I wept buckets.