Children of Men

Children of Men 2006

• Director: Alfonso Caurón
• Based on the book by PD James
• Cast: Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Peter Mullen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Clive Owen – Elizabeth the Golden Age, Derailed, Closer, King Arthur, Gosford Park, Croupier
• Michael Caine – Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, Sleuth, The Prestige, Batman Begins, Last Orders, Get Carter, The Cider House Rules, Little Voice, Educating Rita, Sleuth, Get Carter, Alfie
• Julianne Moore – The Hunger Games 3&4, The Kids Are All Right, The Privates Lives of Pippa Lee, The Hours, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, A Map of the World, The Big Lebowski, Safe, The Fugitive
• Chiwetel Eijfor – The Martian, Dancing on the Edge, 2012, Kinky Boots, Love Actually, Dirty Pretty Things, Amistad
• Pam Ferris – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Our Mutual Friend, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Middlemarch
• Clare-Hope Ashitey– soon to be seen in Doctor Who
• Peter Mullen – Sunshine on Leith, Top of the Lake, The Liability, Tyrannosaur, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows 1, The Magdalena Sisters, Stone of Destiny, Boy A, Young Adam, My Name Is Joe, Trainspotting, Braveheart, Riff-Raff
• Why? Remember it as being good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 24 May 2020      

       In 2027 children are no longer being born. The world is in turmoil. In fascist Great Britain immigrants are blamed for everything, hunted, caged, beaten, shot, forcibly deported en masse.

       Theo (Owens), a high up bureaucrat, is a cynical pessimist who thinks it’s too late for the human race even if a cure is found.

       His ex-wife Julian (Moore) is leader of a guerrilla group fighting for equal rights. She coerces him into helping Kee (Ashitey), a young immigrant woman, get out of the country safely.

       It doesn’t go well. They are attacked violently and take refuge with the guerrilla group. Theo discovers that Kee is pregnant and that they are in danger.

       It’s not as good as I remember it being. Essentially, it’s an adventure-escape story disguised as a serious dystopia. Caine is entertaining as a hippie, semi-hermit pot-smoking ex-scientist and Ashitey is good as the sharp-tongued refugee but as a whole it doesn’t work as well as it should. It’s trying too hard and its message is muddled.

3* of 5