Children of Men

Children of Men (Director: Alfonso Cuarón, UK/USA, 2006): I really wanted to watch this film last Saturday but the 200 copies at the local Blockbuster were gone. What’s a guy to do when he has com­pany over and has to make a good film pick? I paid full price for the DVD and I feel it was worth it.

Children of Men was on a lot of Top Ten lists last year and a lot of critics con­sidered it to be the best film of the year. Was it better than Pan’s Labyrinth or The Departed? Hard to say. My favourite is still Pan’s Labyrinth.

Children of Men is dark, beau­tiful and def­in­itely not a main­stream pop­corn flick. It’s the type of film that stays with you long after it ends and will have some people won­dering why they spent 109 minutes watching it. I enjoyed it and need to watch it again.

Set in the future, Children of Men presents a world where human­kind is on the brink of extinc­tion. A killer virus wiped out all the world’s chil­dren and left the adults infer­tile. Amidst all the anarchy and chaos, a preg­nant woman appears with a mir­acle child, a saviour for the world.

Like The Matrix before it, Children of Men will surely inspire a number of uni­ver­sity courses along the lines of “The Christology of Children of Men”. The bib­lical ref­er­ences run deep and will make this a pop­ular film to ana­lyze and discuss.

There were many incred­ible scenes in this film but the one that stuck with me the most involves the crying baby. The pres­ence of this mir­acle child and its crying voice is louder than the deaf­ening crackle of auto­matic gun­fire. It’s one of those cine­matic moments that you’ll remember for years—think Schindler’s List and the scene with the child in the red coat.

In the last few days there’s been quite a buzz about the incred­ible cine­ma­to­graphy in this film—the long takes and the mag­ni­fi­cent camera work will have you scratching your head. There is a lot to enjoy about this film if you’re willing to par­ti­cipate in it while you watch it.