REVIEW - "Children of Men" (2006)

I've been waiting to see this movie for a long time. First, the fact Alfonso Cuaron was directing it got me excited. This was the man who directed one of the first mainstream arthouse films, "The Secret Garden", remade "A Little Princess" into a much darker and more diverse story and gave us one of the better Harry Potter films, "The Prisoner of Azkaban". That was a good enough track record to my butt in the seat! Plus Clive Owen in a trailer with one of my more favorite Sigur Ros songs didn't hurt either.

Alas, I feel a Sigur Ros song was needed in the film itself... I was disappointed by "Children of Men, but not devestated. Cuaron created one of the most horrific visions of the future since "Mad Max", only less over the top. The plot revolves around Theo, played by Owen, an x-activist (hippi) and hopless guy bumbling around in a world where women can no longer bear children. Why are women unable to give birth anymore? Don't know, but that's not the point of the film anyway. His attitude of course changes when he is shown the miracle of Kee's pregnency and begins protecting her at all costs. Now of course Kee is a foreigner and of course at this point in time all foreigners are illegal in Britian. So now Theo must find a way to get Kee to "the human project" without her or her child being harmed. Good luck buddy! Director Cuaron makes sure the audience is skeptical if she'll make it or not. The world surrounding Theo and Kee is so harsh and riddled in confusion, hatred, destruction and fear, that getting the characters through all of it seems about as likely as a baby making it across a mine field in one piece.

The movie has some of the most impressive shots I've seen in a long time. During an enormous battlefield scene the camera follows Theo down two streets and up the stairs of a building as he takes cover from gunfire, bombs and the mayhem of both soldiers and innocents running for cover. The shot lasts well over five minutes without cutting or transitioning at all and it only gets more tense.

While the world Cuaron created is an amazing, bleak depiction of the future and his technical abilities as a director far surpass that of most films these days, I was disappointed with the handling of the characters. (Especially one that got WAY too high a billing...) In Cuaron's other films, mentioned above, he emotes his characters to the audience in such a way that it's hard not to be concerned about them like they were close friends or family members. But in "Children of Men" I was concerned only if they made it through the current situation. My girlfriend pointed out that maybe this was done on purpose to evoke how hopless this future is, but part of the point in this movie is the prospect of hope returned, right? When Theo begins actually fighting for something again, we should see more of his character to care about right? It just didn't happen and on top of that the script wasn't the strongest thing in the world either. Some of the lines felt like they wanted to be smart, but came out as rather lackluster. (And on a personal note, I'm not a fan of hippies and a lot of their mannerisms, so several characters were a turn off for me in that aspect.) Despite my dislike for hippi-esque organizations, I must say it was nice to see Michael Caine do something a bit different. I'm glad a long haired, drug producing, crazy Caine wasn't taken too seriously-- He's rather comical for the most part. Seeing him straight-faced in such a role would be too painful to take seriously.

Ultimately I was hoping for more emotion and shock from this film. It's not a bad movie by any stretch and certianly worth taking a look at. Cuaron is still very talented and I look forward to his future work. Hollywood has a goldmine of talent in him alone. Use it damn it!

**1/2 out of ****