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"Children of Men" makes us feel desperate, but hopeful
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Recently we got the opportunity to see Alfonso Cuarón's latest flick at the local cinema megaplex, Children of Men. Having seen the trailer months ago we put this on our short list of movies to see because anything regarding a dystopian future and Clive Owen we're first in line for. We sat down in the theater captive to the ads on the screen and then the theater dimmed and we were transported.
Children of Men is set in the not-too-distant future of London in 2027. The world in engaged in global war and terrorists seem to be running the show. Why would the world fall apart so quickly, you ask, the world has become infertile. There's no next generation and desperation has sunk in.
The film starts with this basic concept and delivers one of the starkest and gut-wrenchingly realistic views of our near future. Whether women are infertile or not it is becoming increasingly clear that man has an entirely tenuous grip on his existence on this planet and that it's sooner than later that the desperation will become widespread.
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What sold the movie for us were the small touches that brought the film into juxtaposition with the world as it exists today. The mass marketing of a product that is no more than a suicide kit, the knackered London 2012 Olympics sweatshirt, and especially the extreme isolationist views of the citizens who are hunting down refugees and illegals, putting them in pens, only to put them into camps.
Alfonso Cuarón has delivered a film that is not only beautifully shot and has the best directed action sequences I've seen in a film but also gives such a graphic and desperate view of our future it can do nothing but make us try to find hope that we can overcome this future that is well nigh.
Photo via AP
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