Children of Men

Alfonso Cuaron’s adaptation of PD James’s dystopian novel is a Christmas story of a kind. In the year 2027, 18 years since the last baby was born, disillusioned Englishman Theo (Clive Owen) becomes an unlikely champion of the human race when he is asked by his former lover (Julianne Moore) to escort a young pregnant woman out of the country as quickly as possible. Britain, in this imaginary future, has closed its borders and the apparatus of an authoritarian state is out to stop them. Yet Theo will risk everything to deliver the miracle the whole world has been waiting for.

Here’s a bold statement about a bold movie: Children of Men, like no other film this century, and perhaps no other movie ever, solves the meaning of life. (The answer? More life, of course.) Alfonso Cuarón’s staggering 2006 adaptation of PD James’ novel is that rare picture that astounds with technical marvels – long, exquisite unbroken shots; a beguiling, but subtle, development in camera technology that allows for one of the most stunning scenes ever shot inside a car. But it is also rich and vital in its emotional and philosophical depth: its sadness, its anger, its reverence and worry for humanity. Cruelly overlooked in its initial release, Children of Men has endured to become a cult favourite that should be required viewing for anyone grappling with feelings of dread about modern civilisation. Which is to say, probably everyone. In the end there is transcendent hope, found amongst Cuarón’s beautiful, bracing rubble.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

[Children of Men is] obviously something that should be on people’s minds after Brexit and after the rise of Donald Trump.

Francis Fukuyama

Made with palpable energy, intensity and excitement, it compellingly creates a world gone mad that is uncomfortably close to the one we live in.

Kenneth Turan, LA Times

The movie of the millennium because it’s about our millennium, with its fractured, fearful politics and random bursts of violence and terror.

Dana Stevens, Slate

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