Children of Men
Feb. 2nd, 2007 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
uberreinigerWent and saw Children of Men tonight. Mel didn't feel well so I ventured solo. I think she was the fortunate one. This movie left me with a pounding headache from its sheer intensity.
Slow. Gruesome. Brutal. Ugly. Depressing. Opressive. There is not a single positive adjective that can be used to describe this movie. Watching it is like fucking a gorilla: you're not finished until the gorilla is finished. This movie throws you down, stomps you, then shoots you with a 9mm. Then it stomps you some more.
Do I think people need to see it? Absolutely. Do I know how I feel about the film? I'm still not sure.
If you don't know the plot, it's set in Britian 20 years from now. No new human babies have been born anywhere on Earth in the last 18 years and it's pretty much down to fanatical terrorist groups and totalitarian governments battling each other over the scraps as the world dies. Enter Theo (Clive Owen), a minor government clerk who while dodging terrorist bombings on his way to work spends his time drinking and hanging out with Jasper (Michael Caine), a former political cartoonist who grows marijuana. One day he is contacted by his ex-girlfriend (Julianne Moore) who is now a terrorist leader. She seeks his aid in smuggling a woman out of the country - a woman who just happens to be the first woman to become pregnant in eighteen years.
I'm sure you're all intelligent enough to have seen the previews and know all that, but I include it for politeness' sake. What the previews might not tell you is that this is not a daring adventure about a plucky band of heroes valiantly guiding the Mother of the Future to safety. This is an unflinching, unapologetic look into a nightmare world of endless war, racial atrocity, violent xenophobia, and the human race which even in the face of the imminent end of everything, absolutely refuses to change its ways or learn from its mistakes.
The cinematography is amazing, particularly in the last thirty minutes of the film. Imagine the Normandy sequence of Saving Private Ryan done in the style of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. The acting is all impressive too, although it's not really a film about acting. I wouldn't exactly call these career changing roles for Owen, Moore, and Caine, but the three of them do what they do best. The real star of this film, however, is Clare Hope-Ashitley who plays the pregnant girl, Kee. She serves as the story's emotional center and makes a believable, three-dimensional character out of what all too easily could have been just a MacGuffin with legs.
My only complaints about the movie:
-Despite the very realistic portrayal of her character throughout, at one point in the film Kee makes a very critical decision on the spur of the moment, with little information and without asking for proof of what she's been told. Clearly it's all in the name of plot expediency and is a jarring moment that's hard to stop thinking about.
-Peter Mullan (Session 9) and Chiwetol Ejiefor (Serenity) in roles that don't really let them shine. They are phenomenal with what they're given, but expansions of their characters would have served the film greatly.
-Fans of Julianne Moore will be greatly disappointed. She's been in Revlon commercials that were longer than her screentime in this film.
I am now watching Lady In The Water. Hopefully it will detoxify me.
Slow. Gruesome. Brutal. Ugly. Depressing. Opressive. There is not a single positive adjective that can be used to describe this movie. Watching it is like fucking a gorilla: you're not finished until the gorilla is finished. This movie throws you down, stomps you, then shoots you with a 9mm. Then it stomps you some more.
Do I think people need to see it? Absolutely. Do I know how I feel about the film? I'm still not sure.
If you don't know the plot, it's set in Britian 20 years from now. No new human babies have been born anywhere on Earth in the last 18 years and it's pretty much down to fanatical terrorist groups and totalitarian governments battling each other over the scraps as the world dies. Enter Theo (Clive Owen), a minor government clerk who while dodging terrorist bombings on his way to work spends his time drinking and hanging out with Jasper (Michael Caine), a former political cartoonist who grows marijuana. One day he is contacted by his ex-girlfriend (Julianne Moore) who is now a terrorist leader. She seeks his aid in smuggling a woman out of the country - a woman who just happens to be the first woman to become pregnant in eighteen years.
I'm sure you're all intelligent enough to have seen the previews and know all that, but I include it for politeness' sake. What the previews might not tell you is that this is not a daring adventure about a plucky band of heroes valiantly guiding the Mother of the Future to safety. This is an unflinching, unapologetic look into a nightmare world of endless war, racial atrocity, violent xenophobia, and the human race which even in the face of the imminent end of everything, absolutely refuses to change its ways or learn from its mistakes.
The cinematography is amazing, particularly in the last thirty minutes of the film. Imagine the Normandy sequence of Saving Private Ryan done in the style of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. The acting is all impressive too, although it's not really a film about acting. I wouldn't exactly call these career changing roles for Owen, Moore, and Caine, but the three of them do what they do best. The real star of this film, however, is Clare Hope-Ashitley who plays the pregnant girl, Kee. She serves as the story's emotional center and makes a believable, three-dimensional character out of what all too easily could have been just a MacGuffin with legs.
My only complaints about the movie:
-Despite the very realistic portrayal of her character throughout, at one point in the film Kee makes a very critical decision on the spur of the moment, with little information and without asking for proof of what she's been told. Clearly it's all in the name of plot expediency and is a jarring moment that's hard to stop thinking about.
-Peter Mullan (Session 9) and Chiwetol Ejiefor (Serenity) in roles that don't really let them shine. They are phenomenal with what they're given, but expansions of their characters would have served the film greatly.
-Fans of Julianne Moore will be greatly disappointed. She's been in Revlon commercials that were longer than her screentime in this film.
I am now watching Lady In The Water. Hopefully it will detoxify me.
