Hits You Deep Down

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2007)

After watching CHILDREN OF MEN, a very strange thing happened to me in the twenty-four hours since seeing it: I'm actually growing to appreciate the film more and more every minute. That's a distinct strength of this film over others that are trying to crowd it out for your almighty box-office buck. There's no instant gratification, no sex/nudity just for their own sake, no violence for the sake of violence (although there's plenty in here, it's just threaded into the story exceptionally well).
Based on P.D. James' novel by the same name, Children of Men focuses on the death of birth in the year 2027. That is, the sudden and unexplained infertility of all women (and possibly men). Birth rates rapidly hit the zero mark, playgrounds fall into ruin, and mankind decides that war is the only answer. This is an interesting paradox as the premise is on the fact that men will fight over anything, including the death of life. Some sort of inherent gene is sparked in mankind whenever a perceived loss is fixated upon (democracy, oil, land, etc.), and when children disappear from that equation, it's time to pull out the gun. This isn't stated specifically in the film, per se, except for once when Theo (Clive Owen, the main character) and Miriam (Pam Ferris, a nurse) are looking out at a defunct swing-set and Miriam comments on how much the world misses the sound of children. "We never knew how much we'd miss that sound," she says. And so the loss is given mention just this once, but is "felt" throughout the movie.
But all is not gloom and doom. Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) is the only pregnant woman on the planet and is hidden away by an underground network of freedom fighters who's main goal is to try and gain rights for illegal aliens in Great Britain (many nations have closed their borders in order to prevent the spread of any possible infection that might be causing the infertility). Julian (Julianne Moore) is the leader of these fighters and approaches Theo in order to obtain traveling papers for Kee (Theo having family that can access to such things). Initially Theo refuses, but money enters into it as does Theo's own curiosity toward Julian (they were once married and had a child who'd died during a flu pandemic). Initially Theo is unaware of Kee's pregnancy, too, and once he learns of it you can see on his face the sense of importance that this new life might bring to mankind. Theo plods on through war-torn streets, pulling Kee along with him in an attempt to make it to "The Human Project." This project is never fully explained but enough clues are dropped to infer that this is the one place where babies might be born. Kee and Theo must make it to a ship off the coast of Britain in order to secures Kee's safe passage. But death lurks around every corner for Theo, Kee, and her baby. Everyone who comes into contact with this trio eventually dies off, denoting the need for death in order for new life to spring forth. From Michael Cain's pot-smoking persona as Theo's oldest friend, to Julianne Moore's forced martyrdom, no one seems able to escape the clutches of death that surround Kee and this unborn child. Maybe even Theo, our main character.
The biggest strength of the film is the screenplay. It seems to have been very well thought out, letting the audience run through the film with the characters rather than forcibly monologuing information to us. The acting is good and the stark city streets are achingly morbid in appearance (shot using lots of gray color), giving the viewer the ability to see and feel humanity's decline.
As stated earlier, this isn't your instant gratification-style flick that'll have you applauding at the end. It hits the watcher deep down on a visceral and subconscious level, an appreciative ember that'll grow the further away one gets from the theater.