Nice spectacle, but I noticed little else

Rating: 4/10 (11 October 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Nothing like a science fiction film with an interesting concept and Children of Men certainly has that, if nothing else. Adapted from a novel by PD James and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, we open in a futuristic London with police marshalling the streets, immigrants being rounded up and caged like animals and a devastating fertility crisis drying up the population, making it a worldwide tragedy when the world's youngest man and the hope for humanity's future, an 18 year old soccer player, is killed. In this depressing climate, dejected office worker Theodore Faron (Clive Owen) ambles about just trying to get by in a world gone to pot. But he gets a rude awakening when old flame Julian (Julianne Moore) quite explosively arrives back in his life and propositions him to help her and her rag tag henchmen transport a pregnant immigrant named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) to safety under the noses of the authorities. With no other meaningful purpose in his life, Theodore agrees- but it doesn't go as smoothly as he'd have hoped and no one appears as they seem.
The film grabs you with it's interesting concept and bleak depiction of the future. Owen's not an actor, shall we say, who prepped me up when I learned he was in the lead role (as I'm sure may have been the case with others) but he's credible enough here, a far cry from his wooden worst. Moore does the best with her limited screen time and the unfortunately named Ashitey is effective in her role. There's good work from Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Pam Ferris in supporting roles as well. Performances and spectacle wise, there are no complaints with the film. Strangely there's just nothing to make the film truly memorable or one I'd want to see again. The interesting subject matter has evaporated by the end, by which time the film has become a slow and plodding drag which seems to go nowhere.
The film bears a similarity with another British film from a few years ago called 28 Days Later. As a futuristic/zombie film, that one worked much better. **