Last week I saw Children of Men, riding along with some friends who suggested it.

It was basically one of those flicks I merited more for its post conversation rather than the movie itself. C.O.M. is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all human women have inexplicably become infertile, resulting in a grim and disenchanted world that has fallen into military rule for order and religion for hope and piece of mind. But then one man, an apatehtic ex-activist stumbles upon a pregnant woman.

After reading that, can't you just see how they got the producers oiled up when the writers pitched the flick? It felt more like a concept movie and anything else. It's a weed-spired 2AM conversation that actually resulted into something.

Overall it wasn't bad actually - almost good... Except for that there was no SUBSTANCE, or any answers to little questions like "why didn't they just get cloning?" or "hello, test tube babies?" This movie sparked quite a discussion afterwards to fill in gaps like these. I'm sure they did it on purpose, as answer would never satisfy you.

(Case in point: 'JUST' video by Radiohead below)



(warning: spoilers below..)

Taking away the need for depth, I liked the use of symbolism and parallels with current human behaviour. The use of life/death was well done at the climax when Theo walks out w/the newborn in the middle of a bloodbath between the state and refugee rebels - the war stops for a few moment as he walks through. Once passing they return to their carnage (which begs the question: why didn't the state grab the kid? who knows).

I haven't done any back research on it, but it felt like an adapted Rad Bradbury dystopian short story blown into a feature film. I have heard that there is a lot of critical rave on this film, so we'll see how well it does at the Oscars!

-RE

Labels: movies