Thinks highly of itself, but really doesn't deliver

Rating: 5/10 (10 April 2007)

I expected to like this movie. I WANTED to like it. Bleak, apocalyptic visions of the future are right up my alley, and the premise of a world plagued with infertility is an interesting idea with bags of storytelling potential. But somehow, I ended up being feeling extremely let down by this one.
I enjoyed parts of it. The style is good, if a bit ambitious  I was especially impressed with the long, seamless cuts that the film considers its trademark (although at least some of them were clearly the product of clever editing). The cast were also excellent  this was one of those movies where I went in with only a vague idea of who was actually in it, so it was pleasant surprise to see Michael Caine and Chiwetel Ejiofor turn up. The early scenes are a pretty convincing portrayal of a stagnating society beginning to come apart at the seams, and parts of it are just plain scary. I rather enjoyed the subtext of the lefty freedom fighters being just as bad, if not worse, than the oppressive government they're fighting against. There are some also some impressive special effects, made all the more impressive by the fact that they don't LOOK like special effects. (The childbirth scene is a good example  for a second there I almost thought the actress had pushed out a real baby for the camera.)
As it went on, though, I started to see flaws. Much has been made of the "gritty realism" of the film, but to me it seemed to be trying too hard to be gritty and realistic  even when the events portrayed are just on the other side of "far-fetched"  and it all came out looking manufactured. The story seems a bit confused about which high-minded social message it's trying to impart (Civilization is fragile? Refugees often get a raw deal? Children are the future? Babies are cute?) and yet it often gets caught up in its own self-importance, never missing an opportunity for a drawn-out moment of exaggerated human drama set to warbling opera music. Not only does this get mildly annoying, it also clashes with the "documentary" style used for much of the film, making it looked even more contrived. Things wrap up a bit too tidily with a clichéd "bittersweet" ending  though if the credits had come up a minute earlier, it would have made a far more effective conclusion.
All in all, what promised to be an excellent movie quickly turned into an overblown, pretentious muddle of a film that delivers very little of anything and thinks far too much of itself.