Children of Men

Review By: Staff

Try to remember your Sunday school lessons or your Hebrew school teachings about Jeremiah, the prophetically gifted man whom nobody would listen to. He was put in jail when he prophesized that King Nebuchadnezzar was going to siege the city of Jerusalem. One reading this review unfamiliar with the synopsis of Alfonzo Cuaron’s upcoming film Children of Men, may excusably assume that the film revolves around the life and times of the prophet Jeremiah, whose story is most memorably told in the Old Testament. On the contrary, Cuaron’s film in fact takes place in an anarchy stricken futuristic world, far from the ancient times of the Old Testament. This vague association will be explained shortly, but first Children of Men.

In 2027 women can no longer have babies. With no future in sight, the world has slowly decayed into a global mass of poor communication, corruption, and rogue militia groups, all taking place under the veil of a deep sadness. Global economies are collapsing, therefore so are their governments and countries. Britain has closed its borders as fallen Eastern European citizens attempt to make it across. They are treated as the slime of the earth and ultimately get banished to refugee camps outside of London. Our story begins on the day that the youngest person in the world, “baby Diego,” is killed. Diego was a major celebrity due to his age. If hope was already lost in this world, then with the death of Diego it is most certainly gone. Theo’s (Clive Owen) ex-wife Julian, (Julianne Moore), a “Fish” rebel leader pays Theo to help transport Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) out of the country. Theo agrees to do this, he needs the money for undisclosed reasons, and asks no questions. When plans go astray, Kee shares with Theo her secret, lifting her shirt she reveals a round belly with life inside it. A man without hope is now in the process of cultivating it.

This epidemic is a world wide problem. But the film does not waver from its London setting. Apart from showing some newsreel footage of other world cities, the film almost entirely is told in the first person, with Theo as our visual narrator. What Theo experiences, we too as the audience also experience. Theo starts to experience some contention and differing of ideals from the “Fish” rebel group. The rebel group with co-leader Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wants to use Kee to help unite the rebellion against the national government, while Theo wants to bring Kee to a mysterious group called “The Human Project”. These scientific people only operate through certain chosen satellites (people) to reveal their whereabouts and information about them, leading to their dubious nature. Theo is forced to take matters into his own hands and deliver Kee to “The Human Project.”

Subtlety, like silence, is golden in this film. It may be because we are so often “beaten over the head” with the “point” of a film, that one can appreciate the ...