Life at a Lively Pace

“Children of Men”, an adaptation of the novel by P.D. James, is Alfonso Cuaron’s best movie to date. If you’re looking solely to be entertained, this movie is not for you. This movie makes you think. Hard. It is a powerful depiction of the true colors of human depravation when humanity is faced with the realization that there is no hope of a future.

The technical aspects of this movie do not disappoint. As noted in many reviews, the camera work is very different and contributes a great deal to the story. For many scenes, the camera was handheld, giving you the sense that you are walking/running along with the main characters. That effect could have potentially caused a theater full of motion-sick individuals, but it was handled carefully and does not detract from the scenes. Also in many of the scenes is the presence of spattered blood on the lens as you are trying to look through it but it is accomplished in such a way so as not to be a distraction. The one description of that world that keeps coming back to my mind is the word “grey”. Though the movie was filmed in color, you’re left with the distinct impression that it was devoid of it, which goes to underscore the bleakness and gives the movie a gritty feel to it.

The story starts in 2027 with the announcement that the world’s youngest human (18 years, 4 months and 12 days old) had just died from injuries sustained when he refused to give an autograph to a fan. As details emerge, you find out that, for an unknown reason, women have become infertile - no known cause and no cure in the foreseeable future. The world has collapsed into chaos with Britain as the only country left standing. Citizens of other countries abandoned their homes and their now uninhabitable countries to illegally immigrate to Britain. The increasing chaos causes Britain to become a police state, imprisoning the illegal aliens and abusing/torturing some of them before deportation - that is, the ones that survive the abuse.

In the midst of this very hopeless world, a woman named Kee is keeping a secret - she is eight months pregnant. She is also a refugee, destined for deportation. An activist group, fighting for proper treatment of the illegal aliens, wants to use her - and her soon-to-be-born child - for their own purposes. Theo, a disillusioned man and an ex-activist, agrees to help Kee to safety.

This movie is one of the best I have seen in a long time. The acting was superb (Michael Caine as Jasper, a pot-growing hippie in the woods, was particularly enjoyable), the story was believable and it produced more questions than it answered. I like and admire that - no one has all of the answers to all of life’s difficult questions. While the movie had a good ending, it did not take all of the ills displayed in that particular society, put it into a box, tie a pretty bow on it and say “see, everything works out in the end with a little bit of love”. The police state, the activists, the bombing, shooting, the infertility and the abuses remained.

One of the aspects I appreciated about the movie, as a Christian, was the portrayal of human depravity. I don’t know if it was intentional on Cuaron’s part or, for that matter, P.D. James’s when he wrote the novel (I’ll have to read the book). Too many times, movies (and books) have a tendency to gloss over the topic of depravity, either making it play such a tiny portion of the overall picture that it doesn’t seem worth mentioning or making it into an abnormal “illness” that the deviant suffers from. While the cause and effect were never explicitly delineated in the movie, it seems that once the hope of a future was gone, the populace began its descent into destruction. Depravity is the norm. The world in 2027 is clearly polluted, farm animals are heaped into pyres or lie dead in the fields and entire countries are uninhabitable due to terrorism or nuclear attacks. One scene shows that works of art are being defaced. The pervasive sentiment is this: if there will be no one left to appreciate it, it’s not worth anything so destruction doesn’t matter. This, then, begs the next question: does anything have inherent worth or is it only worth something because someone is present to give it worth? Depending on one’s beliefs, there are two very different answers to that question. And the answer to that question determines whether something (or someone) is treated with dignity or viewed as disposable.

Another point the movie makes is that not only do the ends not justify the means but the means can potentially destroy any chance of reaching the ends. The activists in the movie, The Fishes, claim that they are fighting for the rights of the illegal aliens who are being mistreated. But, as some extreme activists are wont to do, the manner in which they carry out their message is so damaging that they are viewed as terrorists rather than as advocates for the oppressed. Ironically, The Fishes are outraged at the abuse the illegal aliens are subjected to, yet they think nothing of killing off (or threatening to kill off) one of their own for breach of protocol.

“Children of Men” displayed elements that parallel the Biblical narrative. At the center of the story is an unwed, pregnant woman in a place far from home who is carrying the hope of the world in her womb. No woman had been pregnant in nearly 20 years. Though the mechanism was very different, I would venture to say that the reality of the pregnancy was as astounding to Kee as it was to Mary. Another example in the same vein is that of Theo. He made sacrifices - some with potentially fatal consequences - all along the way to ensure that a woman, who was not his wife, carrying a babe, who was not his child, would be able to deliver the hope that the world was so desperately grasping at. In one scene (and I’ll be careful not to divulge any spoilers), soldiers of the state cease fire when they realize that a miracle is before them. Some soldiers are even down on their knees in a near-worshipful stance - kind of like the band of shepherds who stopped what they were doing to demonstrate their reverence for the Christ-child. Minus the semi-automatic machine guns.

Despite the bleakness, hope shines through. Beauty emerges from the ugliness. Color pops out from the grey. Themes of hope and sacrifice are woven together throughout the story - without sacrifice, hope doesn’t stand a chance.