Children Of Men is, frighteningly, a movie for our times. Directed by
Alfonso Cuaron and starring
Clive Owen, this dystopian near-future flick is set in Britain in 2027, 18 years after the last child has been born (a reason for the demise of human fertility is never given). Most of the rest of the world has fallen into chaos and hordes of refugees from a world that has lost hope for its future are flooding the coasts of the UK.
But of course Britain hasn’t maintained order by good table manners alone; the same hard line government that enforces mandatory fertility tests for all citizens rounds up wayward refugees and dumps them in squalid camps for deportation and worse.
The action of the plot centres around Owen’s disenchanted activist character, Theo, being thrust into the role of protector and escort of the first pregnant woman in nearly two decades into the safety of underground research group,
The Human Project. Owen’s rise from apathetic drunk to knight errant is ably supported by a stellar cast that includes Julianne Moore as a terrorist leader (and the mother of Theo’s deceased son) and Michael Caine as a spliff-tastic renegade hippie.
However, it is Cuaron’s usage of epic single shot action sequences, docu-style hand held photography and vivid production design that shades familiar UK scenery like Greater London or the English countryside with third world war zone details that truly transport the viewer into this chillingly possible near future scenario. Children of Men is based on the
PD James novel of the same name, but, with it's infusion of present day plights, from forced human migration to religious fundamentalism, that Cuaron elevates his film beyond it's source material.