Children of Men Film Review

                Many films have theorized their own take on an apocalyptic future for mankind, but few as hauntingly plausible, real, and engaging as “Children of Men”. The film was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who also directed “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, which by the way is my favorite Harry Potter film. The film takes place in the not so distant future of 2027, where nonspecific natural disasters, wars and terrorist acts have ravaged most of the world and left it without government or authority. Britain still stands without relative structure with strict police and even stricter immigration patrol. And to top it all off, for some unknown reason women have become infertile and it has been about 18 years since a child has been born. The story follows Theo Faron (Clive Owen) who is approached by his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore) in need of help smuggling the first pregnant girl in 18 years out of the country.

                The first starring role I ever saw from Clive Owen was in “Shoot ‘Em Up”, a campy, trigger happy action movie from 2007. And while he did fine in that film, it didn’t give him much substance to show his acting chops. “Children of Men” however is a very dramatic and character driven film, so the acting means a whole lot more. And Clive Owen does a great job as the protagonist “Theo”. The emotion he shows in the more panicky scenes is very real and believable. Julianne Moore and Michael Caine also have supporting roles in the film. Moore does fine, nothing to write home about though. And Michael Caine gives a fun, lasting impact performance. Even though he’s only in the first half of the film he is easily one of the most memorable characters.

                The only way I can think to describe the film score for the film is operatic. It’s all non-diegetic music is almost all very soft string instruments with operatic vocals in either a different language or just pretty tones. This only comes up during emotional scenes and is there to empower those scenes, which it does quite well. The diegetic music on the other hand ranges from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones. This music comes up during scenes where the characters have a minute to breath and are having fun. It’s a good contrast of music, and helps the audience to sympathize with the way the characters feel in the scene, whether they feel good or bad.

                Now I can’t talk about this scene without talking about its extensive use of “The Oner” technique. Using this technique is very expensive and very difficult, but with no edits or cuts it makes the scenes where it is used feel so much more real in “Children of Men”. And it is used quite often. One of the first scenes is actually a Oner, even if a not particularly long one. This was a smart way to wean the audience into the kind this style of cinematograph. But there are two scenes where the Oner is most notable.

The first is the car scene. Where everyone in the car is talking and having some fun when trouble comes along, and all the while the camera pans and moves throughout the car. You may not even realize it the first time you watch the scene, but it’s really quite impressive. The second is during the climax and the major action scene of the film. It clocks in at around 6 minutes of one take and is phenomenal, with very well choreographed movement, acting, gun fire, and even explosions. There is only part of this Oner that threw me off. At one point of the Oner some specks of what looks like blood gets on the lens of the camera, this took me out of the immersion a bit but I let it slide. I then found out later that it was cg and nothing actually got on the lens during the scene. I guess this was suppose to make you feel like you were actually there with Theo and add to the immersion, but it just reminded me that there was a cameraman and did the opposite.

“Children of Men” gives a thought provoking and disturbingly possible vision of what the near future could hold for the human race. If you’re like me and you liked Alfonso Cuaron’s “Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban” in pacing, tone, and enjoy character driven films, then you should make “Children of Men” you’re next movie to see.