The Best Picture of the Year
The best movie of the year has been out for months, but not in the US. It opened in the UK in September and has had wide release all over Europe, but has barely shown at all in the US. It opened to extremely limited release on Christmas Day (just enough of a release to qualify for the Academy Awards) and is currently in limited (but still very limited) release across the US.
I am talking, of course, of Children of Men, the new film from Alfonso Cuarón (A Little Princess, Y tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine and based on the dystopic novel from PD James. For those few who have read the book, the movie is at once similar at also completely different. If you’ve read the book, you will not know the plot of the movie, although the feeling of the movie will be familiar.
Of course, the feeling of the movie will be familiar to anyone who has seen Rollerball (not the crap remake), Soylent Green, Gattaca or any of a number of other dystopic movies made since the 1970’s.
Clive Owen (Inside Man, Sin City) is absolutely perfect as this washed up former activist who is, like most people around him, simply coasting through the latter days of the human race. He meets up with his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore), who is still very much an active activist and sees a way to make some money and get himself out of his current situation.
Along the way we meet his old friend Jasper (Michael Caine) and we also get to meet a few people in Julian’s group, primarily Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor; Inside Man and Serenity), Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) and Miriam (Pam Ferris; Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Technically the movie is amazing, with a richness of detail that will likely only become apparent after many close viewings with a DVD. The overall feeling of the movie is amazing, and some of the camera work and extended single-shot scenes are remarkable. However, at no time does the feeling that the director is showing off come through. The movie is as it is because that was the best way to tell the story.
As for the story, while the PD James book was more about the nature of humanity and the role of children and parenthood as an essential part of that humanity (or at least that’s how I read it), the movie is much more about racism, fear, hatred, and the sort of fervent fascism that we are starting to see a resurgence of in these early years of the 21st century. Yes, some of these elements where in the novel as well, but the focus has shifted with the movie.
It is, in a very real way, a movie that is an indictment of the present-day political climate, and should serve as a reminder of what sort of future lies at the end of the road we find ourselves on.
I can’t find anything wrong with this movie, and give it a +4 on the +4/-4 scale, where 0 is an average movie. Or, if you prefer, a 10/10.