A rare futuristic thriller: grim in its scenario, yet exhilarating in its technique.

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2007)

There are many things that happen in our future: for those technological buffs out there, there will be large hi-def T.V screens and sophisticated wireless devices. But on the not so shinny side, and for those present day future predictors, women will become infertile, and eventually we will all vanish from Earth. It's difficult to establish such a premise in 114 minutes, and Cuarón happens to know this. So what he creates is more of a preview of it. Despite its astute sympathy for what-if film lovers, "Children of Men" does work, and rather effectively.
It's 2027, women are infertile, death comes everyday, migrants are a complex deal, rebellions arise all over the world, and there is a suicide drug named "Quietus." Motto: "You decide when." Shelled by the excellent Clive Owen as Theo, a lazy and mundane man who has lost his son to, yes, a flu pandemic in 2008. His first portrayal is a scene in which he is walking into a coffee shop, -the youngest person in the world, age 18, has just died- buying a usual cup of coffee, and putting a sip of rum in it. An instant later, an explosion. It nearly kills him. Cuarón lays clues and evidence all over the film, especially through vivid examples of people, mostly illegal immigrants, being locked up on the street, and random, but important advertisements. Theo really doesn't care much about the world, that is, until his ex-wife (Moore with no English accent), the leader of pro-immigrant rebels, presses him into retrieving a pair of illegal travel passes in the hopes of reaching a group of much-rumored, never-confirmed off-shore scientists called The Human Project. Their motives, tied to the well-being of a young immigrant (Claire-Hope Ashitey), will soon become clear, but only after the cost of failure has been made equally clear. Kee, played by Ashitey, is visibly pregnant, and after a serious of insolent truths about the rebels themselves, Theo is now bound to help Kee. They set off, and eventually reach their destination, which marks the end of the film.
Cuarón's graceful camera, the movement of characters across the frame, and the magnificent acting collectively evoke a genial sense of place. But while the film's exo-skeleton is a memorable and vivid one, the film does have its minor narrative flaws. But what ultimately saves the film from darkness (just imagine if it were Ridley Scott) is Cuarón himself. Without overemphasis, Cuarón beautifully bends gritty realistic scenes and predictable ones to his own canon; he changes the rules of the game, and he is very well aware that only he can do such a thing in a film with a what-if standpoint. He includes mettlesome action scenes (all which are masterfully detailed) with exuberant dialogue, and we truly realize what an brilliant director he is. While "Children of Men" is not his best film, his diversified directing is fluently proved in this piece work. His previous works, including the terrific "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien", have all spanned from drama to fantasy, and all over again with this rare and futuristic film.
There is a striking scene late in the film, after a serious of some major 'bam bams' and deaths, where Theo tries to find the newly-born infant that Kee had unwillingly exerted out of her young abdomen the night before. Everything but the young baby's cries fill the screen. He soon finds her, and he brings Kee along with the baby out of the decrepit building which they were using as shelter. Soldiers cease fire. People hold out there arms and cry. They all forget why they are fighting, and if there is any cause for it in the first place. It is evident that Cuarón has a gift only the greatest filmmakers share: he makes you believe.