Children of Men: Movie Review

Children of Men (2006): **** and 1/2

Britishers, and more specifically, Londoners will be forgiven if after going to the movies they suddenly plan to pack their bags and just migrate forever. For if film-makers are to be believed this year, the English subcontinent is fast heading towards an intolerant totalitarian state with a government that, if failing in manipulating our fears through a conspired bio-weapon attack (V for Vendetta) will end up smoking cities galore in order to deport every one of the millions of illegal immigrants (Children of Men). To make matters worse in the latter’s case, pollution and/or radiation exposure will have rendered every woman in the whole world inconceivable. Every, but one. Her name’s Kee and Children of Men is essentially a story of her rescue to a sea sanctuary (namely the Human Project) first by an activist Julian (Jullianne Moore) and then her reluctant ex-lover, Theo (Clive Owen) amidst a raging war between the illegals and the state’s armed forces.

The real dilemma here is mine and that is, from where do I start complimenting this movie. Its heady mixture of tension, violence and poignance is so enrapturing, I was speechless when I came out of the cinema. After watching Alfonso Cuaron set new precedents in teenage drama (Y Tu Mama Tambein) and fantasy (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), I can easily say that Children of Men stamps its presence on the genre of sci-fi as loudly as only the likes of Spielberg or Wachowski brothers in the recent times could.

The use of hand-held camera, first of all, which immediately transports you into this grimy and murky London of 2027, just besides Theo. And the best part is, the scenes are filmed with whole sequences captured in a single shot. The camera would lazily follow Theo as he buys an early morning coffee (the news of the youngest boy in the world killed for refusing an autograph blaring on a sleek plasma screen on the wall behind), then as he steps out into the shabby Regent Street, the camera would casually capture the buses with animations for advertisements, motorised cycle rickshaws, rubberised cars–all caked to their windows in dust and moving amidst a heavy cloud of smog, and then the camera would come just behind Theo as he takes out his whisky bottle and starts to mix some liquor in his coffee, and just like that–you hear a loud BANG of a bomb exploding a few yards away from where Theo is busy having his early morning caffeinated booze. Yes, this is a single scene. (you can watch the snap-cut edited version of this in the trailer below)
Another masterful sequence is when the camera is placed inside the car which Julian and Theo, alongwith two other people are using to transport Kee. One moment the camera is busy capturing Julian (n the front passenger seat) and Theo (in the rear seat) playing, and then as the driver screams, the hastened camera captures the absolute sight of horror that sends shivers down one’s spine. A car in flames from the forest is being rammed right in the middle of the road in plain sight and before one can make sense of what’s happening, hundreds of raging illegals come out pelting stones at the car (the sound design is such that every hit almost hits the viewer’s head). Now the driver starts to reverse the car, and suddenly a motorcycle with two helmeted guys comes racing towards the reversing car, and a shot is heard. The front windscreen of the car cracks, yet the race between the reversing car and the bikers is on as the latter come hurtling towards the car’s side. Theo slams the door open which sends the guys and their bike toppling, first noisily on the car’s bonnet and then on the road. And just as the camera captures that and turns, you see a profusely bleeding Julian on the front seat shivering. And all that I just described in this whole para is one scene, captured in a single shot. The technique is just so perfect in extracting every bit of paranoia and the potency of violence in this, and all other action sequences, the images haunt you long after the credits have rolled. And kudos to the director and the actors who so expertly managed to convey the lightning quick transitions so naturally.

Coming back to imagery, the extrapolation of the current state of affairs to 20 years down the line is so well-conceived and well-realised by the production team and the cinematographer, that its realism is horribly credible. Given Britain’s inability to safeguard its borders nowadays, the constant infiltration of tens of thousands of refugees, an overworked Home Office, messed up deportation rules, growing burden of asylum seekers on country’s resources– the future that Children of Men paints isn’t improbable at all. In fact, in scenes like mass evacuation of towers of council flats, of refugees put in cages, of residential buildings used as militant abodes, streets littered with dead bodies with tanks firing into people’s houses and armed gunmen firing back from inside, activists and sloganeers on every road– the deliberate irony in the transformation of a city like London into what resembles a present day Basra or Beirut is both bold, totally believable and as a result, spine-chilling. But all this is the background of the movie, if the film-maker’s casual hand-held camera is to be believed. It might get clouded with dust or splattered with blood, but the camera just wouldn’t leave Theo’s shoulder.

Which is fine enough because the larger story that needs telling here is the impending end to humankind in absolute absence of procreation (the exact whys and hows are given a cold shoulder, a la the PD James book the film adapts itself from). Kee’s pregnancy clearly is a phenomenon and Julian’s terrorist comrades, who are fighting for equal rights for immigrants, understandably want to use the black girl’s baby for their own means. So now, its all upto the alcoholic average-Joe Theo to rise up to the occassion and deliver. Which might sound a little cliched a plotline, but pitch in the fact that our hero doesn’t even have proper running shoes, the baby can’t be made public and Julian’s aides are on Theo’s tail, and you have a menace filled thriller with odds greatly stacked against the good man. The main story’s template is simplistic with a defined start, middle and end but just like in the background, the foreground has some neat sequences— notably the one where Theo, Kee and Kee’s caretaker take refuge in a dilapidated school building and just as the caretaker mouths “the world is a strange place without children”, one just nods away in agreement. The progression of Kee’s pregnancy all through her rescue trip keeps one on tenterhooks. As if her contractions weren’t enough to raise questionable glances, she breaks water the minute an interrogating officer slaps and demands why she’s not answering him. The sequence of her childbirth and when Kee carries the child in the middle of what seems a raging battle are two exquisitely filmed sequences.

Surprisingly enough, Cuaron hasn’t left his wacky sense of humour behind (only he can have the main hero wear flip-flops for half the film’s running time) and the sharp, witty dialogues provide the much needed relief from the suicidally grim on-goings. There’s also Michael Caine, as Theo’s hippy dad who’s just such a likeable old fella, he’d have you in stitches and in tears within no time.

I can’t say this enough but if Children of Men and its principal players (the director, the actors, the technical crew) don’t get nominated in next years Oscars, the frigging Academy can as well close itself down and declare itself dead (though I have said this so many times by now, the sentence has lost all meaning, but it never harms as a reminder hehe). Stupendous is the word for the performances by Owen, Caine and the supporting ensemble, while the ultra-photogenic Jullianne Moore doing the terrorist leader act is classy. The production design is as elaborate and as painstakingly detailed as the likes of Minority Report, which is a godsend for a screenplay as ambitious as this.

Rather than taking the theatrical, symbolism and metaphor-filled path of V for Vendetta (not rubbishing that film either, just emphasising the difference), Children of Men is future created and realised at the grass-roots. Smell the stench and picture the murk. The film’s going to make you care for the principal characters, be a part of their struggle, and choke you up as you witness them succumb to the unrelentingly brutal backdrop. So go treat yourself by watching this cynical-to-the-max futuristic thriller NOW and be disgusted, moved and inspired all at once.

The trailer of this brilliant flick: