One of the best movies in recent memory

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2012)

I've seen Children of Men several times now and it gets better with every viewing. This isn't a hard film to follow, but it is undeniably gorgeous in its portrayal of a bleak and dismal future where humanity has ceased to procreate.
It certainly raised a lot of questions from its premise. What happens when human kind can no longer reproduce? The film begins with the death of the youngest known person in the world. Younger people are cast as celebrities due to their rarity. The film is set in England and we see the negative effect this would have on society. People are depressed, the economy is in the tank, immigrants are harshly deported, and humanity seems to be nearing an end. The film even hints at catastrophic wars across major city centers around the globe.
Several sides are presented here. The English government is rounding up immigrants and placing them in concentration camps or deporting them, terrorist organizations are resisting and plotting their own uprisings, and a mysterious organization called the Human Project is researching the reproductive phenomenon offshore.
Clive Owen's character, Theo, is brought into the fold when his ex wife Julian (played by Julianne Moore), asks him to escort a girl out of the country that her terror organization is protecting. The back and forth is handled well. Julian dies and Theo is asked to protect the girl, Kee, at all costs. He learns she is pregnant and that handing her over to the government or his wife's organization would be a bad idea as both sides would use her to further their agendas. The rest that follows is intense and well thought-out. Theo eventually gets Kee to the Human Project after finding himself in a war between both sides.
The performances and minor touches in this film drew me into its world. Michael Caine (Jasper) played a great part as a hippie father-figure to Theo. I won't hear Ruby Tuesday the same way ever again after having watched those scenes. The music portrayed in the movie (as in the confines of the world) was this brash screaming concoction and I felt the writers did some research to imagine what music may sound like in the future (also representative of the depression and angst people faced, so that was a nice touch). Other things like the cars and some of the interfaces were really neat as well.
Technically, the action scenes were enormously complex and gritty. Children of Men features several composite shots that need to be seen regardless of anything else. The scene everyone talks about is the fight at the end of the film. This shot spans 6 min of unbroken filming and it's truly a masterpiece in editing and execution.
I am a big fan of post-apocalyptic films and Children of Men looks at things a little differently. It's not famine, planetary resources, or overpopulation that leads to humanity's end, but our loss of procreation, the most important resource for our survival. The atmosphere was spot on and perhaps more realistic than most scenarios that threaten to end our existence. This movie places up there with my favorites.