Good, but over-rated and disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2007)

Children of Men was highly rated in 2006 and, as I write this, it's in the IMDb top-250. I saw it yesterday and I was slightly disappointed.
Children of Men is based on a novel by P.D. James (which I haven't read, by the way). The movie depicts the UK in the year 2027. Women can't have children anymore and the whole world is in chaos. In the UK illegal immigrants are put into refugee camps. Theo Faron, a former activist, gets located by his ex Julian and discovers that a woman named Kee, an illegal immigrant, is pregnant.
That's pretty much the whole story and there are problems with it.
First of all, it's incredibly shallow. No real explanation is given to the question "Why are women not capable of having children". Some thought should have been put into it. It's one of the central themes in the movie. Second, characters lack depth, especially the main character Theo. I think he is a lame excuse for a main character. Even though he's had a tragic past, I just couldn't sympathize with him at all. Clive Owen's mediocre performance didn't help, either. However, Michael Caine made a great performance as Jasper, the weed-loving cartoonist.
Although the story itself is flat as a pancake, the other elements of the movie work well. The dark tone of the movie is excellent, the camera work has been done in a beautiful but grotesque way, especially in the later scenes of the movie and the chaos is portrayed well. Those are the factors that tighten the grip of the movie.
But these elements can't completely save Children of Men. I think it's one of director Cuaron's worst movies because of the lack of a decent story and the emptiness of the characters. I think that at a length of 2+ hours this would have been a much better film. Now it's too compact for its own good.