GET OUT MORE ....FILM REVIEW

28-09-2006

It's the 1984 of 2006...well, sort of. Children Of Men is a doomy sci-fi thrillerstarring thebloke once tipped to be James Bond, Coventry-born Clive Owen. Film producer Roger Shannon of Moseley-based Swish Productions gives his verdict.

CHILDREN OF MEN

It's sometimes said that to know the British, and to get under their skin,
you need to come from outside, and this is true in films as much as with
anything else.

CHILDREN OF MEN is directed by one of the stars of the recent resurgence of Mexican
cinema , Alfonso Cuaron, whose last film was HARRY POTTER AND THE
PRISONER OF AZKABAN, and before that the art house success Y TU MAMA
TAMBIEN.

The time he tries his handatsci fi, adaptingPD James
novel, that looks into the near future,and presents a
chilling, but credible picture of London in the year 2027.

What's powerful about this dystopian movie, with its nod and a wink to
George Orwell, is its vision of a bombed out capital, prey to rampant
terrorism, and bearing the urban scars of a Beirut or a Baghdad. And the
trick that the director pulls off is that - like Danny Boyle'sfuturistic vampire movie 28 DAYS LATER - it rings uncannily true. This is grunge sci fi with a convincing credibility, far from
the flights of 'boldly going' fancy that frequently air in this genre.

This is a future where, to steal punk's philosophy, there is no future. No
fun either. Fertility has been scuppered by pollutants and no child has been
born for 18 years. A militarised society now chases down illegal immigrants
and bangs them up in Bexhill on Sea, a sort of UK Guantanomo Bay. Suicide
pills are free from a 2027 NHS, and a band of rebels - The Fishes - stir up
violent unrest.

Into the grip of the Fishes falls Theo, played by Clive Owen, a middle aged
civil servant with a lapsed radical background. His ex wife, played by
Julianne Moore, still flies the radical flag in the Fishes. In this
underground setting Theo becomes the almost Biblical guardian of the only
pregnant woman on earth, a terrifying secret which the Fishes wish to make
capital out of. In helping and protecting the mother to be, Theo has a
rekindling of his former idealism.

Chased by the military, and battling to
survive, Theo becomes the unwitting hero of the movie. Along the way,
Michael Caine puts in a witty and amusing cameo as Theo's old mate, Jasper,
an ageing stoner who patches the on-the-run Theo into an underground support
network.

As well and the sci fi and thriller elements, this is also partly anaction movie. And the action is
extremely well handled by the director, especially the battle scenes between
the military and the terrorists, where a hand held camera style (high on
documentary and low on special effects) works extremely well.

Laced with provocative ideas about the future, graced with a distinctly scruffy
look and placed in a creepily familiar London, CHILDREN OF MEN is a
thrilling action movie with a high IQ.

Roger Shannon