Children of Men DVD Review

The accolades for Children of Men are many and all well-deserved. The small cadre of writers, including director Alfonso Cuarón, adapting the novel of the same title by P.D. James have delivered a tight, suspenseful, and totally engrossing script. The first time I saw Children of Men, I could hardly think the film was so commanding.

Of course a large part of that suspense comes from the director's masterful pacing and exacting detail. From the beginning, the audience is kept a bit off-kilter. It's our world, but something terrible has happened to it.

The exposition works not because of the overt plot points like when Theo talks with Julian about needing him to get some papers but because Cuarón makes sure the background offers information to fill in the pieces. For example, throughout the first twenty minutes there are shots of people in cages, a train hit with stones, a bombing, and graffiti reading "Last one to die, turn out the lights" all of which create a world complete enough to capture the imagination.

Technical and visual expertise aside, what sets this movie apart is its complete story. Lots of films have great acting, great cinematography, effects, etc., but they don't have "story," by which I mean a combination of events and reflection that captivate you, such movies I've seen recently without a powerful story or plot element are Hollywoodland and Running with Scissors. In both movies, I started looking around, wondering if I missed something because nothing seemed to be happening.

On the surface, Children of Men's action, story, or plot, whatever you want to call it is an action adventure sequence of events in which the protagonist must journey with his charge to a safe place. Still, Theo does much more along the way; he moves from living a kind of comatose, emotionally euthanized life to being fully alive. Like any good art this isn't stated directly but seen. Even when Theo meets Kee, he is still only after money. It isn't until he learns she's pregnant that hope is reborn in Theo. Jasper, in a rare moment of reflection in the film, labels this hope as "faith" and contrasts it with chance. Perhaps, faith is reborn too, but Theo's hope that faith can overcome chance is what allows him to act, to protect Kee.

Thus, this film addresses the question of humanity and the dilemma of a single human as profoundly and delicately as any I've seen.

And the sound track rocks.