The Best film of 2006!

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2008)

In the year 2027, the world has gone 18 years without the birth of a child. It's a bitter place and the only place left standing in one piece (according to the British media) is England. Theo (Clive Owen) is asked by his ex-wife to help a young fugee (British slang for refugee) named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) get to the coast. Imagine his bewilderment when he finds out she's pregnant.
I found that the visual storytelling of Children of Men raises implications on three levels; social, political, and religious. The social implications on a world without children are the most obvious. Everyone in England is bitter, drunk, and sometimes both. British police treat people like animals, locking them up in cages; even the buildings look haggard as if they were people too. Because there are no children, the world has no hope for survival. As Jasper (Michael Cain) notes, "bloody Government hands out suicide kits but ganja is still illegal!" There even television ads for the suicide kits (called Quietus) that say "You decide when." I found this bit of dark humor first class.
There isn't much dialogue in terms of the political implications but the visual imagery and iconography are non stop. The reason Theo, Kee, and the rebel group Kee was apart of can't make the pregnancy pubic is because Kee is a refugee and she also happens to be black. The rebel group known as the Fishes is afraid that the world's first baby in eighteen years would never be accepted as the child of a black woman. They hint at the possibility that maybe the British government would cover up the real birth mother and make it look like the baby was born from a white woman. The fugees are hunted down in the country's crackdown in illegal immigration. Britain has its own Department of Homeland Security, mirroring that of the United States. The film makes countless references to the US with special regards to the treatment of unlawful enemy combatants (a term that applies all too accurately in Guantanamo Bay). One of the most chilling (and uncut) scenes in the film; British soldiers line up refugees and strip them naked. They then put black bags over their heads. As the camera moves further right, we see a row of dead bodies; naked and black bagged. The most obvious reference to the use of torture is a brief shot of a man wearing a hood over his head with his arms spread out, standing on a box; a blatant portrayal of Satar Jabar, the real life torture victim at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
I've always said that movies like Children of Men require more thinking than most other films. This isn't Rush Hour or Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This isn't a Bollywood film. What I'm saying is, this isn't "leave your brain at home" cinema. So frankly, people who watch (and relish) the aforementioned films/genre are unlikely to pick up on the fact that Theo and Kee are made to represent a modern day incarnation of Joseph and the Virgin Mary.
There were several examples of the imagery we associate with Jesus. Jesus was born in a manger. Kee reveals her pregnancy to Theo in a barn and she is standing in front of a manger and Theo is standing next to one. When Theo sees this he utters the words Jesus Christ. In fact, every time someone sees the baby from that point on in the film they say Jesus Christ or they make the sign of the cross; Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. While Kee and Theo are trying to make it to the coast, there is a brief shot where politics and religion collide head on (as they usually do). We see a woman on her knees holding the dead body of her son. This is a direct reference to two famous and infamous images we have become familiar with (with the exception of the Bollywood crowd). The woman holding her son very obviously resembles "La Pieta"; the Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding her son Jesus. No doubt, this could also be interpreted as the National Geographic image of the woman holding her dead son during the Yugoslav wars (the Balkans in particular), which was also taken in a manner meant to replicate La Pieta.
All this might be a bit overwhelming. I take my knowledge for granted sometimes. Some of you might be asking, "So the baby is Jesus being reborn?" I don't think so. But one thing is for sure, after 18 years without children the world is miserable. With no hope for children, there is no hope for a future; the world and humanity are doomed. We hear the phrase our whole lives but we take it for granted. "Jesus Christ, our lord and savior. The baby isn't Jesus; the baby is the savior of humanity. This is Alfonso Cuaron's best film to date and undoubtedly the best film of 2006.