Children of Men
Just saw "Children of Men". One of the best movies I've seen, one of the most touching and has some wicked action sequences.
Minor spoilers follow. Bite me.
First, the basics: humanity is infertile. No one has been born in the past 18 years. The whole of the world is circling the drain, and England is center-stage of the film. It's having problems of its own, those of a rebel uprising and an attempt to deport all illegal immigrants. The problem of illegal immigrants isn't touched on much and we aren't too sure who the rebels are or what they want. Regardless. The main character, a very awesome Clive Owen, finds himself at the center of events that are simply beyond one man. He has to transport a pregnant woman to the mysterious "Human Project". Yes, pregnant. And... we're off!
Co-starring is Michael Caine (in a wonderfully drugged-out John Lennon imitation), Julianne Moore as Owen's long-ago wife and leader of the rebellion, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Julianne's second in command. First off, Chiwetel Ejiofor is as awesome as ever. Second, so is Caine. In fact, the whole cast is top notch.
The movie is an artistic masterpiece. More is said through the use of background images than through traditional story-telling. The dialog is never pointless and always telling us more of the story. One of the best things about the movie is the point-of-view (POV) camera shots. I think the producers have created a masterpiece and have defined the use of camera mid-action. There is particularly long tracking shot, at the end of the movie, that lasts 9 minutes and goes from shoot-outs on the streets to tanks being deployed against a building. Imagine the opening scenes from "Saving Private Ryan", transposed to an urban setting, all overlaid with the sickening feeling that the first child born in almost two decades is in mortal danger.
The film is also very emotional and touching. In fact, it might be too much so. Or maybe it's just me. I tend to be pretty affected by movies, and this one was no exception. The feeling of loss, hopelessness and the overall dark mood stuck with me long after leaving the movie theater. Or maybe that's just me and not the movie. Bah.
Watch it, if you can. I had to drag my ass to the oh-so-comfy chairs at Lincoln Square Cinemas because, as the law of American films states, the number of movie theaters a film is playing on is inversely proportional to its quality. See for yourself: the current #1 movie in America is "Stomp the Yard", with a Tomato rating of 25%. #2 is "Night at the Museum", with 40%. In fact, go to the current Rotten Tomatoes Box Office stats page and notice how the rating of the film and the number of theaters it's playing at is related. "Pan's Labyrinth" has a score of 97% and is playing at 6 times fewer theaters than "Museum". Anyways, back to the post in progress.
Actually, we're done. That's a wrap people! I'm off for the day. Maury, hold my calls and reschedule that thing tomorrow.
2 comments:
[major spoilers follow]
How was that a good movie? One of the best you've seen? Seriously? Start with an outlandish assumption, which you never explain, abuse it severely as a plot device to come up with a hero-saves-the-world scheme, and then watch the hero save the world. The only scene in the movie I actually liked was the soldiers stopping when she and Theo were walking out of the bombed building. That's it.
Jasper was pretty cool, but he alone cannot save a movie. The plot was uninspired, the dialogue lacking. Anyhow, definitely a bad movie for me.
I tried to write something here, even got a few paragraphs into countering your points, then thought better of it.
I don't think the premise was outlandish or that it was abused to make Theo into a hero.
But that's not what I mean to say. As my dad remarked about "V for Vendetta", "The movie is well done". I thought it was very well made, both cinematically and in the way of storytelling. A lot of the story is told through background images, news reports and off-hand remarks. The car scene and the tank scene were in amazingly well done, considering that the action in the car was taped with the crew being on the roof and the tank scene is done in one cut.
The silent-soldiers scene was great, I agree, but I also think that it wasn't the only good scene.
I can't really come up with anything else. Blogger's block.
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