Alfonso Cuaron’s dystopian future, today.
I’m currently in the process of dusting down hundreds upon hundreds of film reviews I’ve penned during this last decade and as this particular film has a Radiohead song that is brilliantly and so appropriately used as a centrepiece of the film well, Children of Men simply had to jump to the top of the pile. But it’s not simply because of my obsession for the Indie/Prog Rock band from Oxford, England and who’s music has become a lifetime’s obsession. It’s more that this film mirrored many of the books I’d read before and after the turn of the Millennium and Cuaron’s horribly dystopian future has been incrementally writ large on our collective telescreens year on year until that life changing year of 2020.
Societal breakdown, immigrants held in border camps, terrorist atrocities, falling worldwide birth rates, fear, division, disease, unease, anxiety, stress, all pushed relentlessly by a Media feeding from the fear it generates.
Sound familiar?
Oh of course I’d love to sit around and chat! But be careful.
“Someone’s listening in”
Originally written in 2016 and included within the 50+ minute opus article on the career of director Alfonso Cuaron linked at the bottom of this paragraph, I’m an unabashed cinematic fan of the Mexican film director and will be releasing three more stand alone reviews from within the article below in the coming weeks, namely his 1991 debut Solo con tu pareja (Love in a Time of Hysteria), 2001’s Y tu mama tambien (And Your Mother Too) and his multi Oscar winning Gravity from 2013.
For now though it’s Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, King Crimson and a life of opulence for a tiny elite set against the poverty of the 99.9% of a world population reducing by the day and clinging to the hope that the dystopian world around them is just their lying eyes lying to them.
Again.
Alfonso Cuaron — Filmmaker Extraordinaire
From “Love in a Time of Hysteria” in 1991 to multi Oscar winner “Gravity” in 2013 and seven more cinematic gems in…medium.com
“Every time one of our politicians are in trouble, a bomb explodes”
Children of Men was my first in depth exposure to the films of Alfonso Cuaron and became a firm favourite of mine immediately on release in 2006. As I write this ten years later the film’s overriding themes of alienation in a post apocalyptic world, of failing social structural norms, oppressively high tensions surrounding immigration and nationhood still resonate deeply whilst shining a light on some of today’s eerily similar worldwide issues. Set in the year 2027, the film is anything but futuristic with a dirty grey colour palette dominating, and with society failing in all directions there are no discernible signatures of a futuristic world to come, of flying cars, enhanced transportation, logistics or media.
In it’s place is a disintegrating world at war with itself, a disillusioned populace and it’s immigrant inhabitants enclosed in horrific holding pens and internment camps with only the UK and London seemingly free of the riots spreading throughout the globe. The film is ostensibly rooted in London which as a rolling train billboard proclaims “Only Britain Soldiers On” and on the surface at least this appears to be the case. London is still working and sporting life, recreation and life at large still in evidence but lurking around every corner are terrorist threats, Government oppression and horrifying immigrant exclusion zones that resemble war torn ghettos.
The world as a whole is dying with liberty, freedom and progression seemingly on permanent hold after 18 years of zero recorded new births that has spawned a societal depression across great swathes of the entire planet. Following the death of “Baby Diego”, the World’s previous youngest member, his torch has been passed to the next youngest person alive and she now carries the weight of the world’s expectation and every possible hope on her shoulders. However, unbeknownst to the world at large and more crucially the authorities, a young girl loosely associated with the anti Government “Fishes” organisation is, against all possible odds, pregnant, and needing safe passage to the “Human Project”. Enter our accident prone and reluctantly accidental hero “Theo Faron” (Clive Owen).
Clive Owen is the film’s headline star and excellent in his role of the clumsy and accidental hero Theo. Deeply depressed at the world that now surrounds him, Theo has tuned out from the madness that surrounds his daily life and has a ghost like, dead to the world persona that is the polar opposite of his life just 20 years ago when he worked passionately as an activist with “Julian” (Julianne Moore) and “Jasper” (Michael Caine). Suffice to say both Moore and Caine carry their respective roles well and together with Clive Owen’s Theo character drive the main narrative of the film. All three characters are past/present or lifelong friends and all have an irreverent stance on life that has been shaped by their respective experiences but all three equally have a past that whilst clearly on display for the audience is rarely discussed and left to develop along with the narrative. Julian is the leader of the “Fishes”, an anti Government or Terrorist Organisation (depending on how you view the 2027 News) and Jasper is Theo’s release valve and much needed perspective on the world. Here Caine excels in quite an unfamiliar role for him as an aging hippy utterly devoted to his incapacitated wife, music, and his vast quantities of “strawberry cough” cannabis plants!
Although dead and oblivious to the world around him, Theo finds solace and comes alive only in the company of his lifelong friends however this is a rare event in his life as seemingly everything happens either behind or just out of Theo’s visual range. In one of the film’s major continuing themes, he may be front and centre and very much the reluctant hero but everything happens around or behind him, be it the film’s signature explosion in the opening minutes through to the youths pelting the train he travels on, the caged immigrants at the train station or the graffiti billboards that seemingly track his every move. All of this happens behind Theo and it’s a clever narrative strand that continues throughout.
In addition to these main characters Pam Ferris is excellent as mid wife “Mirian” to the miracle Mother in waiting “Kee” portrayed well by Clare-Hope Ashitey and Chiwetel Ejiofor stands out as determined Fishes heir apparent Leader “Luke”, some seven years before he would astound the world in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Three further roles are worthy of note and key participants in this intriguing apocalyptic story, with Danny Huston excelling in a frighteningly on edge portrayal of Theo’s cousin “Nigel”, similarly the excellent Peter Mullan portrays duplicitous Immigration Officer “Syd” brilliantly but last but by no means least is Oana Pellea’s excellent portrayal of immigrant “Marichka”.
One of the film’s endearing traits is John Tavener’s musical soundtrack and the inclusion of numerous stand out individual song tracks from across the ages. A film can often stand or fall on it’s musical accompaniment and where Children of Men excels is Tavener’s music choices as well as the haunting and mournful score that highlights Theo’s state of mind that rises and falls alongside his inner turmoil and swinging moods. The inclusion of songs from Deep Purple, The Beatles, John Lennon, The Libertines and Donovan are inspired choices but it’s the addition of The Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday”, King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King” and Radiohead’s “Life in a Glasshouse” that impresses the most. Ruby Tuesday is employed twice with the second rendition truly heart breaking but spoilers will not allow for further explanation.
The brilliant Court of the Crimson King sums up the film in a cliché nutshell perfectly, with Theo enjoying his chauffeur driven ride through the busy streets of London in the midst of a city still working, still functioning and still full of pomp and circumstance despite the terrorist threats and immigrants housed in appalling conditions mere streets away, before arriving at his cousin’s outlandish and art filled retreat within the refurbished Battersea Power Station, resplendent with Pink Floyd era flying pigs! As a lifelong myopic Radiohead fan, the inclusion of Life in a Glasshouse is a particularly inspired and wonderful choice for innumerable reasons. The lyrics themselves of “Don’t talk politics and don’t throw stones” and of wanting to “sit around and chat” and to “stay and chew the fat” despite “someone listening in” are particularly apt, as is the song’s opening lines of “once again, I’m in trouble with my only friend” and “She is papering the window panes”. These last examples aptly describe Theo and Julian’s strained relationship (as well as their first meeting in 20 years being in a glass enclosed building with newspapers covering every window pane — see picture above) however it also aptly describes the three friends overall together with the film’s overriding themes of alienation, paranoia, oppression and dislocation.
Children of Men garnered three 2007 Oscar Nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay (of which Alfonso Cuaron was one of the main screen writers), Best Editing (again Director Cuaron was one of the two Editors nominated alongside Alex Rodriguez) and long time collaborator and the fantastic Emmanuel Lubezki (Tree of Life, Burn After Reading, Ali, Sleepy Hollow) was nominated for his intricate and exemplary achievement in Cinematography. Ten years on the film remains fresh on the screen, sharp and incredibly poignant when mirrored to today’s oppressive treatment of immigrants and the vast divide in wealth between the have and have not’s.
Based on the best selling source novel of the same name by PD James, Children of Men remains a firm favourite of mine but with minor reservations. The film’s first two Acts are strong and narrative driven before the third Act’s struggle for survival, whilst affecting and well played, falls a little flat. The sporadic bursts of comedy also fall very flat (aside from Michael Caine’s sequences) and the AD segments of Additional Dialogue that segue between some scenes are also flat and uninspiring.
However, aside from these minor issues the film remains a poignant inclusion within Alfonso Cuaron’s burgeoning cannon of cinematic greats.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film and television articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Rushmore” (1998)
Love at first laugh.medium.com
“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
and the beginning of my cinematic love affair with Sam Rockwell.medium.com
“Jackie Brown” (1997)
Across 110th Street with Foxy Brown.medium.com