Children of Men

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

During its release I think I may have seen one or two short clips and I definitely saw the poster, and I thought it was certainly something I wanted to try in the near future, I'm really glad I eventually did, from director Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Basically in London, England, 2027, no children have been born anywhere in the world for eighteen years since all women have become infertile, and the youngest person in the world, Baby Diego (Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi) from Argentina, has been killed, leaving everyone devastated. The other big issues are the government almost collapsing, Britain becoming a militarised police state, and the big issue is the increase in illegal immigrants, it has become against the law for pretty much everyone foreign to be living in the country. Living in amongst all the devastation is former activist turned apathetic bureaucrat Theodore Faron (Clive Owen), who often visits his friend, ageing hippie, former cartoonist and marijuana grower/smoker Jasper (Sir Michael Caine). One day Theo gets kidnapped by the underground gang called The Fishes, who are against everything wrong in the world at the moment, he is surprised to learn that his wife Julian (Julianne Moore), who left after the death of their son in 2008 from flu, is their leader. She is offering him money to get a travel permit for young refugee Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), which he manages to obtain from his government minister cousin Nigel (Danny Huston), but he has to escort her for more money. While travelling towards the boat to get on, Julian is fatally shot by an ambush group of armed people, making fellow Fishes member Luke (Love Actually's Chiwetel Ejiofor) the new leader. After getting away, Kee reveals the true reason why she needs to get away from everything, she is pregnant, and Julian intended to hand her over to the protection of The Human Project. Theo suggest that they should think about going public about the pregnancy, but the Fishes argue that the government would only take and use the baby when it is born. At night he overhears Luke and an accomplice or two saying that it was actually some of the Fishes themselves that orchestrated the death of Julian to gain revolution support, so he takes Kee and midwife Miriam (Matilda's Pam Ferris) to escape and go to Jasper. After the Fishes find out his hideout and kill him, Theo, Kee and Miriam manage to get away and meet up with Jasper's friend, camp guard Syd (Peter Mullan), who transports them as fake prisoners to Bexhill. It is there tat Kee starts having her contractions and needs somewhere to give birth, so they find an abandoned room provided by Marichka (Oana Pellea), the baby born is a girl. The next day Kee and Theo are caught in the middle of a full scale uprising of refugees, The Fishes have broken into Bexhill, and the army have mobilised, there is a point when they are taken apart, but they get back together and hide. They are slowly allowed out of the building when everyone is shocked to see a newborn baby, but the attacks start again and Maricka leads them to the sewer boat and they row out to the point where the ship Tomorrow will pick them up, but Theo dies and Kee is alone with the baby. The film is full of very poignant subjects, the cast is very impressive, the shaky camera movement, including one or two long takes not cutting away (even with spots of blood on the camera), is very effective, all in all, it is a brilliant futuristic thriller. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, and it won the BAFTAs for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, and it was nominated for Best Special Visual Effects. Very good!