In the opening moments of Children Of Men, a man walks into a coffee shop. A crowd has gathered to watch the news. The world’s youngest human, an 18-year-old man, has been killed. Nobody seems interested in coffee except for Theo (Clive Owens) who pushes to the front of the line, gets his order, and then leaves. As he walks down the street, there’s an explosion. Rubble and smoke blast into the street. The coffee shop and everyone inside have been the target of a bombing.
There are echoes of The Troubles here; that long, dark period in the UK when the Irish Republican Army targeted numerous similar soft targets across Britain in a bid for independence. But this is a different conflict, even more dire. The film released in 2006, but takes place 21 years later in 2027. Now that we’re just a stone’s throw from that date, it’s worth taking a look back on this important piece of cinema, based on the novel by P.D. James.
Directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, Children Of Men tells the story of a world laid low by infertility. People can no longer have babies, and haven’t been able to for nearly two decades. As humanity hurtles toward extinction, social collapse follows. War rages across the globe, and Great Britain has become an isolated, fascist regime. Little environmental details tell this story. Signs urging people to report illegal immigrants flash on the street. Propaganda videos play on buses. We see immigrants in cages, guarded by soldiers with assault rifles.
Theo’s near-death experience doesn’t seem to phase him much. Neither does the death of Baby Diego, the world’s youngest human who he describes to his friend Jasper (Michael Caine) as a “wanker.” Jasper is an old pot-growing hippie who lives in a secluded house in the countryside with his wife. She’s now bound to a wheelchair, unable to speak or care for herself. The effervescent Jasper tends to her needs lovingly, always in high spirits. We learn that he was once a political cartoonist and that Theo was once an activist, before he lost his child. Many of these details are presented in shots of photographs.
But Theo’s day-to-day routine is disrupted when he’s kidnapped by masked men and thrown into a van. He’s taken to a secret location where he meets his ex, Julian (Julianne Moore) who asks him to help her acquire transit papers for a young woman who we later learn is an illegal immigrant refugee (or “fugee” as they’re called in the film) named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey). From here, Theo finds his life of solitude and apathy entirely upended, thrust into a quest that gives his life new purpose and places him and Kee and everyone he ever loved in terrible danger.
It’s a great story, but what makes this movie so compelling is both the performances from its stars and the phenomenal direction from Cuarón and the stunning cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki. The use of “oners” – or long, single-shot takes – has been in frame recently, with shows like Adolescence and The Studio making great use of the technique. But few films have given us shots as stunning as the oners in Children Of Men.
Of course, there is also the political message here. This is a near-future dystopia that is so terrifying because of how likely it seems, how possible this crumbled world feels, especially in a day and age where climate change, anti-immigrant sentiment and social breakdown are all very real. While we may not be facing a worldwide infertility crisis, it’s easy to see how something like it could happen and tip the scales toward chaos and collapse.
I won’t spoil the rest of the film in case you haven’t seen it yet, but please do yourself a favor and go watch it immediately. It’s dark but also uplifting in its own way. The best dystopian films are the most plausible ones, and Children Of Men feels all too real, from the political factions to the way humanity both descends into despair and miraculously comes together to help those who need it most.
