our society through a looking glass

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2007)

I haven't written a review on IMDb in quite some time, mostly because nothing I've seen has moved me to do so. But I am into dystopian sci-fi and I was familiar with the work of PD James -- coupled with the fact that the director had directed arguably the darkest of the Harry Potter films, and, well, I knew I had to see CHILDREN OF MEN.
I walked out of the theater exhilarated, shocked, and somewhat depressed thinking about the story's implications.
If you enjoyed 28 DAYS LATER, you'll probably like this...but this is the superior film IMHO, as this one has more heart and makes you think. 28 DAYS LATER is basically a survival film, where as CHILDREN OF MEN works on many levels.
The picture the director and his crew created is very plausible -- and that's what makes this unsettling. Even though it's set in the UK, as an American I found it easy to imagine a similar situation here. There are scenes in this movie that really upset me and I couldn't help but think, "please, this can't happen!" -- namely the "refugee" detention area scene with the visual homage to the lone hooded figure from Abu Ghraib.
And yet I couldn't help but think there are narrow-minded, redneck jerks in the U.S. who would love to have such border check points and shuttle off "law breakers" (read: anyone who's not their brand of Christian, white and doesn't speak English) to refugee cities on the coast as depicted here in CHILDREN OF MEN.
This is where we could be in 10 or 15 years if certain people have their way with the "law" as they see it and if we let the environment deteriorate past the point of no return. Get your red-orange-yellow-green terror alert machines out folks, 'cause we're going to need them to give us some vague sense of safety when everything else has gone to hell! Action scenes: astounding, you-are-there. The bluntness of the violence will be off-putting to many, but this is not escapist DIE HARD-like action fare where when the bad guys get shot they just magically disappear...and that's a good thing.
When we live in a time when the average citizen knows more about Tom-Kat and other celebs to the point that they're so out of touch with reality, it's refreshing to know that a mainstream movie studio like Universal will still release thought-provoking work like CHILDREN OF MEN.
Do yourself a favor and skip everything else at the multiplex and start your cinema-going year right and see this!