Children of Men

CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) - Jan. 5, 2007
Wow! This movie just completely knocked me out. I mean, I was looking forward to it, and hoping that it would be good, but... It knocked my socks off. It blew them right off my feet (what does that expression mean, anyway? Where did it come from? Anyway...) About a future where women have been infertile for 18 years, and where London is the last livable city on Earth: a police state on the brink of chaos. This was probably one of the best visions of the future since Blade Runner. Alfonso Cuaron's direction was absolutely perfect; the movie featured some really stunning visuals. The whole film was shot handheld, which gave it an appropriately gritty feel. Under a lesser director, this choice could have sunk the movie, but Cuaron and his cinematographer clearly know what they are doing; their handheld cinematography achieves that spontaneous, cinema verite sort of look without having that ugly jitteriness that plagues most handheld movies (Paul Greengrass being a prime example of this). Movies with this sort of look tend to feel like the director just went out and shot a ton of footage with the intent of sorting it all out in the editing room; that was clearly not the case here. Speaking of which, there were also some really long and really impressive shots in this movie. There was one towards the end, which starts outside a building and ends up in its upper floors, that really blew me away (in fact that whole sequence was incredibly well done, and really powerful). Aside from the visuals, the performances were all really good, particularly Clive Owen (if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination I'll eat my hat). The film was also really well written (despite the fact that there are five credited writers, which is generally a harbinger of bad things to come). This was just a really excellent, powerful and gripping film, one of the best I've seen in a while. ****