A glint of hope in the dark abyss of the future.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2007)

This film has created much controversy and is in the camp of you either hate it with a passion or love it to bits.
Off the bat, I'm in the latter camp. This is a movie for grownups, no standard plot two by fours are issued at the door, no endless explications of the obvious.
I've also read the book and would agree with Alfonso Cuarón in his decision to remove a lot of the Christian hype of the book but would disagree with his decision to make this development the infertility of women and not the zero-sperm production of the men of the future. (PD James based the novel in part on this startling new development in the male population in some countries of Europe).
This is the bleak and hopeless world in England of 2027. The visuals are stunning and the mind is kept busy trying to process all the signs of a world gone mad with police and their guns and dogs on every corner. The tension is relentless down to the last bleak frame. Old signage and photographs point to the lead up to these forbidding times and omnipresent ads in buses and streets encourages one to to turn in neighbours to internment camps ("homeland security" reverberates a lot throughout) and also offers pills readily accessible to terminate one's own life if one wishes.
The themes are many and as I'd pondered the book, I'll also be reflecting on this movie. For instance in a world where life is becoming extinct, life is not valued at all, cages of humans dominate every railroad station, identity cards are demanded at every turn. In one brief moment in the film (and it is the culmination of a long continuous shot which must go right up there as one of the best movie moments of all time)the warring stops for a fraction of time to honour the miracle of a child being born and then everyone continues the killing rampage, the baby forgotten.
I loved the insertion of humour into the darkest of circumstances, the alcohol and pot ingested to lighten the load, the caring and sacrifice in the most vicious of times.
Outstanding performances by a stellar cast, Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine,Pam Ferris and Claire-Hope Ashitey, who must have worked so hard to convey the realism of a world gone mad. Cinematography superb, down to the tiniest of details and the above mentioned 'long shot'.
10 out of 10. Not to everyone's taste obviously, there is no middle ground on this movie.