Powerful. Emotional. Private Ryan like Action.

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2007)

I've read a lot of the reviews on this movie and know there are more detailed explanations of all the parts of the movie out there (the actor's performances, the music, the screenplay, the plot, etc). What has stuck with me though, and the reason I'm writing at all, is because of how amazing this movie was able to capture certain intense moments. This movie is unbelievable, unparalleled in a lot of ways in it's ability to impact its viewers.
Michael Cane is first off incredible as the old hippie Jasper, an absolute delight to watch perform. Clive, Julianne, and the rest are merely along for the ride of the unfolding of the plot, which just so happens to take us along for the ride too.
I was not so excited about seeing this movie to tell you the truth and during the first few scenes in the beginning I was thinking about leaving. It wasn't that the movie was bad at all really, I just have a rich taste for human dynamics and wasn't confident this movie would deliver. I was very wrong. Any intense scene, which involved the actual display of that world (future England), was so well shot it was experienced not just witnessed. I felt like that was actually happening and I was in the horror and realness of that world. I did not feel like I was watching a movie, it seemed like reality caught on film. Quite a feat for an entirely fictional piece of art. Director Alfonso Cuarón is a genius, or at least got very lucky when throwing this thing together, all the action scenes are like the landing on Normandy Beach in Saving Private Ryan. In fact this movie seems just as real as that film. Now that's saying something, didn't Saving Private Ryan win best picture? This movie had to be created from someone's imagination, private Ryan was based on something that actually happened, I am so blown away at how good the action of this film is captured. The only reason I didn't give it perfect marks is because the story isn't as incredible, although it's very good and fairly original. Go see this movie on the big screen, when I saw it everybody in the theater was weeping during the last war scene (including me) I believe it was because of the dynamic that was captured involving the baby, (I won't spoil it for you). Up there with the most powerful scene I've ever enjoyed during a movie, and I watch a lot of movies. Go see it even just to get that scene. Incredible.
I can highly recommend Children of Men to anyone who isn't afraid to feel our collective humanness. Children of Men will make clear to you, in the best kind of way. We're all one baby, we're in this together.