REEL REFLECTIONS

HOPEFUL NIGHTMARE
A Review of "Children of Men"

David Greiser

Has there ever been a happy movie about the future? Despite sunny claims made for advances in medicine and technology, films about humanity’s future are uniformly bleak and depressing. Governments are collapsing or oppressive, street life has devolved into violent chaos—even the sky is always gray.

"Children of Men," loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same title by mystery writer P. D. James, is the latest exercise in future-angst. "Children" paints a picture of the world as it might be in 2027. Great Britain is the last civilization on earth, and it is quickly moving toward chaos. Its Department of Homeland Security (really!) rounds up refugees and stores them in cages in the remote countryside. In London, terrorist groups of various sorts detonate bombs. Evidence of out of control pollution is everywhere.

Worst of all, for reasons never explained in the story, there has not been a live human birth in nearly twenty years. With a despairing humanity on the brink of extinction, television commercials advertise pain-free suicide kits for those so inclined ("Quietus . . . you decide when").

A shaft of hope is injected into this dystopian nightmare. A young woman named Kee (played by Claire-Hope Ashitey) has become pregnant. Members of the terrorist organization FISH, led by Julian (Julianne Moore) plan to spirit Kee past security and out of London to an off-shore location where a shadowy group called The Human Project is frantically seeking a cure for infertility.

Julian and her allies hijack her former lover—and former activist—Theo (played by a wonderfully cynical and scruffy Clive Owen) to secure travel documents for Kee’s safe passage. A simple conversation at gunpoint convinces Theo to return to his activist past.

Thus is the story set up in a rather pedestrian first 30 minutes. The remaining 90 minutes contain some of the most riveting and realistic chase scenes I have seen recorded on film.

"Children" is directed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan") with cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. The cinematography relies heavily on handheld camera techniques and long, uncut scenes that convey a you-are-there immediacy to the action. Rather than relying on the usual Hollywood pyrotechnics, Cuaron’s chase scenes are gritty, low-tech, and occasionally darkly humorous. My favorite scene involves Theo and mother-to-be Kee attempting to flee armed terrorists in a car that refuses to start.

Along the way, we are introduced to more memorable characters. These include an aging hippie friend of Theo’s (Michael Caine, in a lovably humorous role) and refugees who are capable of surprising and selfless acts of courage.

"Children of Men" is one of those films that would seem to bear up well under repeated watching. Based on a single viewing, I would say that the strongest elements of the film are its plot, its visual techniques, and its editing. There were moments along the way in which I was scarcely breathing, and there are many unexpected turns of events, befitting a master of plotting such as P. D. James.

But I want to see the film again to scrutinize the story’s metaphorical elements. "Children" seems to be a cautionary tale after the fashion of "1984," or even "Twelve Monkeys." It warns of the world just round the corner for societies that ignore the environment and marginalize outsiders. Scenes of garbage-strewn London streets, open sewer pipes, and smog-filled skies are almost heavyhanded. Shots of caged refugees and body-strewn roadsides conjure up similar memories of Nazi Germany and even of Abu Graib.

Parallels between Kee and the biblical Mary are not subtly drawn. Why is it, for example, that each person who discovers she is pregnant responds with a not-quite-blasphemous "Jesus Christ!" Plus director Cuaron often frames Theo and Kee in shots that seem obviously evocative of the Holy Family.

In the religion section of this morning’s Wichita Eagle, I read yet another accounting of the mainstream film industry’s "rediscovery of faith." While I won’t discount the significance of Hollywood’s new renderings of "The Nativity Story" or "The Passion of the Christ," I confess to having much less interest in those films than in films in which I find myself "overhearing" hints of the gospel. "Children of Men" makes no pretense at being a religious story. Yet even in its gritty imagery and fearful predictions, the hopeful good news cannot be hidden.

—Having finally located the movie theaters of central Kansas, Dave Greiser returns to his duties as "Reel Reflector" for DreamSeeker Magazine. He is the new Director of the Pastoral Ministries Program and a faculty member at Hesston College.