Les Fils de l'homme

This futuristic thriller disposes of much of the sci-fi jargon we've come to expect from Hollywood films. There are no outlandish gadgets or chases through CGI-created landscapes; CHILDREN OF MEN, based on a novel by P. D. James, is a realistic thriller through and through. It's set in a recognisable dystopia (full of violence, poverty, disease, segregation and warfare) and the story follows a strict 'journey' template, following a group of characters as they travel through myriad locales, suffering death, defeat and adventure along the way. So far, so predictable. However, this film works because it's literate, it's intelligent and the focus is on storytelling over flashy special effects or action nonsense.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) is a force to watch out for on the strength of his work here: this is the best direction I've seen in a long while and the film is chock-full of great tracking shots which really emphasise the excitement and danger around every corner. The view of a future UK is nightmarish and believable and the backgrounds and locations are as much a character as the protagonists themselves.

I also enjoyed the fact that the film remains as unconventional as possible as it moves along. Clive Owen, the heroic protagonist, never fires a gun and is definitely an everyman character rather than a hero: he's utterly believable and this is the best role I've seen the actor in yet. Supporting actors are good, but it's the older heavyweights who give the best turns: Julianne Moore, as likable as she's ever been, as a terrorist leader; Pam Ferris as an ally; Michael Caine as an aged John Lennon-type. Chiwetel Ejiofor is also very strong in a minor role. The film does have action, including a ferocious fire fight at the climax, but it's never an action film per se. It's just a great movie that avoids pigeon-holing and never left me bored or underwhelmed once.

OK, I only got through the first 3 pages of comments but let me add my own.

1) Fantastic cinematography. Some like hand-held, some don't. It certainly worked very well here.

2) Related to (1), very long shots. There is one scene where the camera lens has blood splats on it for quite a few minutes. Hollywood would get rid of it, but for this movie it adds amazingly to the atmosphere that is being created.

3) Like "Code46" the technology is in the background. Just the way it should be, allowing us to focus on the story.

4) Theo as the central character NEVER picks up a gun, despite them being all over the place and easily available. As a viewer you are almost willing him to do so, to manage some of his challenges - but very deliberately the character does not.

5) I've read separately that yes this is a comment on current society. Being an Australian, with our controversial immigration laws and practices, that rings true.

6) Similar to (5), using the term "Homeland Security" in the movie is an obvious reference.

7) The revolutionaries/terrorists/fishes are shown to be just as political and militant as the government they oppose.

There are more, but that is enough. Overall a wonderful movie which leaves me thinking for a long time, which is all I ask.

Cheers!

Anton.

Imagine there's a time, when being foreign is a crime, when being different is a curse, you can't be treated any worse, than enslaved inside a place, because of language or your race, this could only be some fiction, who could impose such restriction (well you'd like to think that couldn't happen in an island off Western Europe at least - scratches chin and ponders). All because there are no children, Mother Nature has just withdrawn, thrown her teddy out the pram, decided you lot can just scram, had enough of these abusers, who have left so many bruises, an environment in tatters, now you'll see what really matters.

If this doesn't get you engaged with the world today and the possibilities that might be in store for it then rewind, pause, and watch again. Great performances, spectacular cinematography and direction.

I first saw 'Children of Men' when it came out, 10 years ago, and while I liked it a lot, I kind of forgot about it soon. At the time, it failed to resonate with me on a deeper level - which in hindsight I find astounding.

Last month, a decade later almost to the day, I suddenly felt the urge to revisit the film (because it was mentioned in an article about "long takes"), and upon re-watching it, it just blew my mind. This film is so, so, good!

It not only manages in many aspects to be the most prophetic - and most shockingly realistic - sci-fi film I have ever seen: it achieves that feat with a level of style and through such an abundance of fantastic creative choices and innovative camera techniques that I was simply left in awe.

I was forced to conclude that this film was a visionary piece of art (and how that fact had eluded me the first time around I couldn't - and still can't - explain). It's a cinéphile's dream come true; it's a masterpiece in the true sense of the word.

'Children of Men' is a gut-wrenching look at an all too possible future, but it also works as a heart-stopping, adrenaline-rush-inducing piece of entertainment featuring some of the most breathtaking camera work you'll ever see.

The performances are flawless. The artwork, the production design, the music; I could go on and on: this is one of those few real masterworks where everything just comes together right. And I believe the final 30 minutes of the film rank among the finest achievements in the history of Cinema. Period.

10 Stars out of 10.

Favorite films: IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

Alfonso Cuaron has given us a very clever rendering of a very English dystopian novel. P D James, the "Baroness of Bad" is famous for her well-written and absorbing police procedural novels ("Inspector Dalgliesh") but in the early 90s she produced a vision of a world only 20 years into the future in which for unspecified reasons all the women on earth have become infertile and no babies have been born for the last 18 years.

The rest of the world has lapsed into chaos but the British, stoically, have put the remainder of their civil liberties into the fire and have settled down under an oppressive dictatorship to ward off foreign boarders and await inevitable extinction, though there are some violent dissidents called the fish.

Theo (Clive Owen), a journalist with connections to the top, is "persuaded" by his ex-wife and fish member Julian (Julianne Moore) to obtain some exit papers for Kee (Claire Hope Ashity) a young black woman, who, it turns out, is pregnant. Theo is swept up in Kee's escape across a grim decaying landscape. Not only are there the security forces to contend with, but some equally ruthless insurgents. Cuaron builds the tension exquisitely, interspersing the adrenaline fueled bits with quieter bits.

Kee' projected saviors are a mysterious group called the Human Project who conveniently sail their well-maintained Greenpeace style ex-North Sea fishing trawler past offshore light buoys in the hope of rescuing the human race. But the improbability of this doesn't matter much because by the end of the movie Cuaron has effectively demonstrated what the world would be like if humankind suddenly stopped reproducing. Having children is our way of cheating death, without them there is nothing but death, and in this future there are none about but the living dead.

The casting is pretty well perfect. Clive Owen as Theo puts his haunted good looks to good use as he turns from cynical reporter to a hunted enemy of the state. The motley characters he meets along the way – his ex-wife, the fish rebels, the refugees who help him, the "fascist pig" border guard and above all Michael Caine's aging hippie are all wonderfully realized.

It has been suggested that Cuaron has really made a film about today, not 20 years into the future. The rampaging security forces we see might as well be in Bosnia or Iraq, or even Northern Ireland. In an age of terrorism, order without law very quickly becomes tyranny, which has never been the answer to terrorism. What he and PD James do demonstrate is just how fragile our civil society is.

As a film this is a very fine piece of work. The sets exude grimy Britain, the battles are hair-raising, the quieter moments intense. Cuaron would do a great James Bond movie. He has turned a rather rarefied novel into an exiting and engrossing thriller without obscuring the original message. He is a very versatile and enterprising film-maker and I'm sure he's going to do lots more good stuff.