Film review: Children of Men (2006)

Well this will NOT be a new Xmas favorite film.  Not because it's not good - it's one of the best films I've seen in a long time, but because it's all-too-realistic.  The only thing we've watched recently that could match its combination of being equal parts depressing, horrifying and completely gripping was the Chernobyl TV series.  I am amazed to see that it's almost a decade and a half old, because a more apt depiction of post-Brexit Britain I cannot imagine.  I think it's set some time in the 2020s after a couple of catastrophes: first was a flu pandemic (in 2008, I think) that (we find out) killed the child of the estranged couple played by (a revelatory) Clive Owen ("Theo") and Julianne Moore ("Julian").  The second, more devastating one is a mysterious sudden end to human fertility.  (The film begins with news reports of the death of the youngest person on the planet, 18-year-old "Baby Diego", who was an Argentine celebrity who scorned a fan and got killed for it.  People are seen publicly weeping at his death, presumably a poignant reminder of the fast-approaching end of the human race.) This led to the collapse of civilization in most nations on Earth, with the exception (so the propaganda broadcasts on TV tell us) of Britain, which maintains its fragile grip on some kind of status quo by (get ready) keeping all the foreigners out.  (It's never quite explained how London is still so crowded given the presumed loss of at least a quarter of Britain's population by now, but let that pass.)  Armed militarized police are forever rounding up "'fugees" and cramming them in camps behind  wire fences (okay, there's a lot about Trump's America, too - again making the film prescient, or perhaps accidentally so, because there are a few images (hooded prisoners, for example) that are obvious comments on Bush-era Guantanamo).  London is also prone to bombings (such as the one that destroys the coffee shop Theo has just left just before the titles at the beginning of the film) by various terrorist organizations, including the pro-immigrant "fishes" whose leader turns out to be the wife, Julian, Theo hasn't seen in 20 years.  He sees her now after being snatched off the street by some members of the group and taken to an undisclosed location.  She wants him to get traveling papers to transport an illegal alien to the coast and knows that Theo has a rich relative who can bring this about.  (The relative seems to live on top of Battersea Power Station (which has a huge inflatable pig tethered above it, in a recreation of the cover of Animals), and owns the Statue of David and Guernica, among other art treasures, presumably "rescued" from their respective countries as civilization crumbled.)  It turns out that the 'fugee in question ("Kee") is (drumroll) pregnant.  This makes her a valued commodity, and it turns out that her fate has caused a rift in the Fishes that leads to the death of Julian (her death is sudden and unexpected, much like Janet Leigh's in Psycho)

 as "Luke" (Chiwetel Ejiofor) takes over.  Julian seems to have foreseen this, however, and instructed Kee to trust Theo above all (despite the fact that Theo had been living a normal, white-collar life in the 20 years since he and Julian separated, after the death of their son), and they go on the lam.  There follows a flight across England (ostensibly to rendezvous with the possibly-mythical Human Project), along with an ex-maternity-nurse, who takes Julian's view on things, stopping off at hippy-esque Jasper's country hideaway

(a very surprising Michael Caine, whose final words of "pull my finger" are surprisingly poignant and courageous) and a 'fugee camp at what was Bexhill.  I'm not doing the plot justice, but then again, it's a bit picaresque, and also sort of beside the point.  The film is pure cinema, both in its incredibly immersive creation of an entirely plausible near-future (even better than Blade Runner, if a little less ambitious) and in several bravura set pieces, one of which is now one of the most lauded tracking shots in cinema history, and the other of which is an unbelievable gripping first-person run through a virtual war zone, where blood spatters the camera shortly into it and stays on it (until mysteriously vanishing about halfway through) presumably because the choreography and explosions were too expensive to recreate.  Once this film has you in its grip you can barely breathe (a la Wages of Fear).  As I discovered, it will also haunt your dreams.  I don't know why the Labour party didn't organize mass showings of this film before the last election.  As I mentioned, Clive Owen is a revelation.  He's entirely believable as a man in over his head who forces himself to be brave because he's lost everyone he cared about.  I don't really understand why he isn't a huge star now?  Perhaps it's because he doesn't seem to be able to do anything other than his own London accent (which rules him out even from playing James Bond, for which I believe he was considered) [having said that, apparently he will be doing an Arkansas accent because he's playing Bill Clinton next year!].  But there are other very good performances, including Caine and the repellent "Syd", who insists on referring to himself in the third person, as he is first help and then peril for the central pair of Theo and Kee.

Several actors have to do a lot without any (English) dialogue, as they are part of the teeming hordes of migrants, and are totally convincing.  The film does end with a note of hope, but it is a slim one.  If you haven't seen it, tough luck, you have to see it - it's that good.  But don't expect to feel good afterwards.  Then we can discuss exactly what it's supposed to mean, although that's not really necessary to appreciate it (like Invasion of the Body Snatchers).