Friday, February 23, 2007

Children of Men


I am a sucker for a good dystopia and so I had been waiting a long time to see this bundle of misanthropy hit the big screen. And although at times Children of Men seemed a bit too in love with its knowing nods to the present in our supposed future I have to say I found this a cracking movie.

When any western story after about 33AD features a small child who brings hope when the world is consumed by despair you can't do much to resist the wave of allegory that crashes over you. In this, Children of Men pulls out all the stops (in its movie form at least- I am ashamed to admit that I have yet to read the book). Why make your points with a gentle tap when you could be swinging a big haymaker? Therefore we get lots on religion; the miracle baby at the heart of the film brings temporary peace, the concept of miracle baby leads to factionalization that obscures her true message, proximity to the miracle baby redeems even the most flawed souls, and the miracle baby is not born to a powerful or exalted family but rather to one who is seen as the lowest of society. Still, despite being laid on thicker than Tammy Faye's eyeliner and despite my rampant atheism I have to say the device worked in this case, not least because director Alfonso Cuarón seemed to deliver the whole thing with a mighty wink. And if you don't buy the above, I'd also like to say that it was like Watership Down. A bit.

I also have to admit to making a point of watching any film which presents Britain as buggered, screwed, or generally unpleasant- either in the present (28 Days Later) or the future- as this makes reality (however vile in places) much more pleasant when I return there to visit family. As Country Mouse pointed out, rail travel in modern Britain is not too dissimilar to how it is portrayed in The Children of Men but at least people don't throw rocks and molotovs at passing trains yet. Well, at least not all the time. I could have sat for hours just watching Bexhill-Upon-Sea being turned into Grozny. I also enjoyed the visual gags, such as Picasso's Guernica being saved for posterity as the rest of the world collapsed, and Pink Floyd's flying pig hovering over Battersea Power Station.

I have to say that I liked the impressionistic way the characters were drawn. With the exception of one almost clunking speech saved by the masterful touch of Michael Caine there was no attempt to backfill the gaps in our knowledge of the characters. We had to take them as they were in the moment and snatch what inferences we could from the artefacts around them and obscure references in conversation. In this regard Cuarón was much more successful in creating consistently believable people from outline sketches than his contemporary Alejandro González Iñárritu was in Babel. I think pace was the key here- Children of Men moved much quicker and with great tension which made it easier to deal with its small flaws. As Country Mouse would endorse heartily, just because you can tell a story in 2 1/2 hours, it doesn't mean you should. Brevity is the soul of wit, after all (perhaps I should take that to heart myself).

My one major complaint was the ending. To again paraphrase Country Mouse, to end a movie with what looks like the begining of another movie only works for pirates and hobbits (and even then rarely). On the whole however, lets give Children of Men 8/10.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny how you got the religious part of it.
Maybe someone is trying to tell you something?:)

Wisdom Weasel said...

Someone is trying to tell me something: a Mexican film director called Alfonso Cuarón.

I know my Christianity. I also know French, but that doesn't mean I should live in Paris :)

Bill Norris said...

I was just talking about this film today. After seeing Pan's Lab this week, I've seen most of the biggies for this year and I found Children of Men, flawed though it is (agreed on the ending), better than all of them.

Pan's grated a lot. Another beautifully crafted film with no guts or depth.

flyingrodent said...

I loved it, I was expecting a slow, wordy chin-strokeathon, and actually got a war movie.

The section where they're driving through the forest (just after the ping-pong ball bit) almost made me drop my popcorn.

As you can see, I'm a real intellectual.

mainelife said...

I loved this film, but it took a full 24 hours after seeing it to decide that I did.

Wisdom Weasel said...

I think that Clive Owne makes a great world-weary misanthrope. I can't believe that he was mooted as a possible James Bond before Daniel Craig got the role- it would have been way too Timothy Dalton for my tastes. But he's great in this. like a trimmer, drunker version of Eeyore.

MainePages.com