Lobster in a Bucket

Children of Men-Review

Children of Men has a simple point told with a simple story, and boy does it work. In a time where more people feel like the world is broken, and life is uncertain, even without hope, Children brings those beliefs home, to our streets, homes, and workplaces in the West. Cuaron tells us simply that life is short and cruel, but not without beauty or heroics. Children of Men's story is a pretty basic sci-fi premise. What if all the people stopped being able to make babies? There's no cloning, no immortality, just a steadily dwindling supply of people, and hope, on earth. What would that world look like?

Most sci-fi, good or bad, starts with an interesting premise, but most of it fails to captivate the in a meaningful way. The ideas and their implications take over, without real concern for the story or the characters. Stuff get's geeked out. Children doesn't fall into the typical traps of sci fi through getting the viewer as close to the action of the story as possible. The camera follows Clive Owen and his pregnant charge like a little angel over the shoulder throw the most harrowing scenes. The effect of these moments is that you are submerged into the brutality of their lives, and by extension the brutality of Baghdad and Afghanistan.

Since Cuaron has gone on record tying the hopelessness of this dystopia to the fading hope of the early century the question still remain if this movie is an adequate and accurate representation of the present ennui many live in today. Cuaron digs into the viewers expectation of a fair and decent Western soceity through tearing away the veneer of his character's world to excellent effect. Still, there is a way that the use of this story to evoke the failing hope in our future today is a bit pretentious. Our society is not this fragile, or hopeless. If we truly identify with these characters as representations of our own present reality, we are over dramatizing our lives.

That said this movie works as entertainment and a successful concept, explored well.