Glimpsing the future of Men
By Garett Van Der Spek
November 30, 2006
November 30, 2006
[HTML_REMOVED]Recommendation:[HTML_REMOVED] Worth seeing
Knowing the future can be a scary thing. It can also be powerful or exhilarating, depending on how you look at it. In Children of Men, director Alfonso Cuarón provides a window into the quickly approaching—and bleak—future.
If you have any anxieties about the future being a terrifying and desperate place, wait to see this film. But if it's one of those rare days you're feeling particularly indestructible, I highly recommend it.
The film is set in 2027 England. Humans have become infertile without any prospect of finding a remedy, and thus the world is in chaos. The story follows Theodore Faron (Clive Owen), an ex-activist who becomes involved in a modest mission to save the human race.
Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mamá También) does a superb job not wasting a second in this futuristic/drama/sci-fi/thriller, which grips you by the gut and runs with you for 109 minutes.
The storytelling is brutal and the action is violent and graphic, leaving viewers a little shell-shocked. The thing I liked most about this adaptation of the P.D. James novel is that it's not afraid to be funny. On the other hand, the unusual frequency with which Cuarón allows his characters to die keeps the audience in suspense.
Children of Men is a well-paced, smart, twitty film that makes powerful statements about the not-so-distant future of humankind. I may, however, have a slight bias to my opinion. First, I haven't seen a film in a cinema in at least four months, so the thrill of the experience may have momentarily overpowered my judgment. Second, Clive Owen and Michael Caine are in it. Enough said.
Reach Intermission reporter Garett Ven Der Spek at arts@thedaily.washington.edu.
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