Yesterday, I again went with my movie-going pal, Clent, to see another fine movie in the theatre (yes, British spelling for the win). We narrowed out choice to two movies, Epic Movie and Children of Men. In the end we based on decision on the fact that we knew Epic Movie would be crammed full of pre-pubescent teens. (There were millions of seemingly 12- and 13-year olds at the theatre. Clent said it was literally the most people he’d seen at that theatre, ever [it was the theatre in his college town, so he’d been to it much more than I had].) We were so glad that we did.
Children of Men is based on P. D. James’ novel of the same title. The basic premise of the plot is that all women on Earth have mysteriously become infertile. No child has been born for 18 years. (In fact, the opening scene of the movie enforces this idea by telling us that the world’s youngest person recently died.) The whole world has gone to Hell-in-a-handbasket, with only Britain surviving (mostly). Illegal immigrants are constantly trying to get into Brittan, and there are hundreds of cages of them strewn about London with thousands of immigration cops “waling their beats”.
Without giving away too much of the plot, there is a secret underground organization led by Theo’s (played wonderfully by Clive Owen) ex (played by Julianne Moore), who plans to use a Fuji (an illegal immigrant, if you will) who has miraculously gotten pregnant for political purposes. Moore’s character didn’t want to take this route, so some of the officers below here arrange for an execution of here, and make it appear as though it was done by rioters. Theo then learns of this and takes the pregnant Fuji and tries to get her to “The Human Project”, a group that is trying to figure out why the human race has become infertile. This leads to much chasing, as now they are wanted by both the government (for killing the cops sent to calm the “rioters” who killed Moore) and the “fishies” (the name give by Sid [one of the later characters Theo meets up with] to the group previously led by Moore).
The one thing about this movie that struck both Clent and I was that, although the movie was set in the future (2037, if I remember correctly), it wasn’t overly futuristic. Though there were obvious signs of futurism (like the television screens, and the advertising billboards), the buildings appeared mostly normal, which is how I think the future will probably be. Though there will be new technologies, most of the buildings will probably look about the same as they do now, not all steel and glass-like as most movies set in the future have them portrayed. Though I could be totally off, that’s how I think they wil appear.
The acting in the movie was superb, as was the music and plot, and I think they just pulled this one off “right”. I give Children of Men a very well desrved “A”
SCORE: A