Children of Men

[hazelk]

Last night we watched the DVD of Children of Men. Sometimes I wish it were easier to go out. I used to love the feeling of leaving the theatre after a good movie, after the good ones it would always take a while to adjust to the world again, a brief liminal period the magic of which can’t really be re-captured by turning up the living room lights. This was a good movie.



It has a simple story, almost a parable. Theo (Clive Owen) is an ex-activist in a world suffering from an unexplained epidemic of infertility. After 18 barren years, during which the world outside Great Britian has fallen into chaos and anarchy, he is contacted by his American ex-wife with a request for forged transit papers. These turn out to be for a black teenager who, unaccountably, is pregnant. His wife, Julia, is killed in the attempt to smuggle the young mother out of the country, the pro-immigrant activists who want to use her as a symbol around which to rally a rebellion turn murderous, Theo and the woman escape, struggle to make contact with a mysterious supposedly benevolent organisation called the Human Project and make their way through a refugee camp erupting into civil war to find a boat that will take them to a rendezvous point in the English Channel. The baby is born, Theo is fatally wounded and the film ends with the dying man, the newborn and her mother stranded in a small rowing dinghy on choppy seas.

It’s a brilliantly shot movie, mordantly funny in parts, genuinely thrilling in others, very real. Cuaron has apparently never read the PD James book, which I suspect makes much more overt use of the Christian motifs inherent in the storyline. The film reminds me more of Ishirigo’s Never Let Me Go. Both centre on classic sf dystopian scenarios, but make no attempt to explain how they might have come about or might realistically be resolved. The lack of back story contrasts with a viscerally realistic and detailed portrayal of the present day in these near futures, no flying cars or mutants in sight – just slightly exaggerated versions of what you might see on the news. I think the very lack of a history may be what gives the movie much of its power, it makes the dystopian eternal present feel genuinely inescapable, no cavalry will ever come.

Despite this Children of Men is a movie about hope. The infertility is a metaphor for despair both societal and individual. Theo and Julia had a child who died in a flu epidemic, Theo’s friend Jasper, who helps him escape and is killed by the activists has lost his partner, to Alzheimers. It’s a world torn apart by an arbitrary and senseless fate and yet the message seems to be that the very indifference of nature to human concerns means that if you wait for long enough things can change. Hope can return as unaccountably as it once left and that’s enough. It’s enough in the end to be waiting out there alone in the ocean, whether or not the boat finally comes. The bad thing is to force hope, to manufacture it as Chiwetel Ejiofor’s ferociously handsome activist has. Wanting to use the baby as a symbol he never realises that she might be anything more, fails even to notice that she’s not a boy.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I've heard a number of people praising the film, but we hardly ever go out to the movies either so I figured I might see this years from now at best :>

I found your discussion interesting but was curious about the last line -- what is the significance (if any) that he baby is not a boy?

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the film. Want to.

But here's a guess: Mom's immune to the problem causing infertility. (I'm guessing it affects women, not men.) If Mom has a child, the child has Mom's immunities. So, this means that, through the mother and child, humanity has a chance.

[yourlibrarian]

Ah yes, I can see that. Though I don't know as I'd want to be either mother or daughter in that case...

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Ever read The White Plague? It's been decades, but I think it goes into excruciating detail how unpleasant that position could be.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I wasn't thinking of the sex of the child as being relevant to the infertility problem although if female infertility is the issue (or lack of it) and the mother passes on her immunity it might be. In that scenario they'd already have fertile men although, as you say, who'd want to be either woman. What I meant was that Ejifor's character assumed boyness because he still sees the child as a mythical symbol not a person and in our myths miracle children are boys (which is another reason for liking BSG). Like most fanatics he's turned so inward on himself, so focussed on his ideology he can't see the world around him anymore.

[yourlibrarian]

I had a feeling that's what you might have meant but I wasn't as clear on his role. Got it.

[laddical.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wish it were easier to go out. I used to love the feeling of leaving the theatre after a good movie, after the good ones it would always take a while to adjust to the world again, a brief liminal period the magic of which can’t really be re-captured by turning up the living room lights.

Hi, I found you thanks to galacticanews - you may have already noticed a comment posted in your "Rapture" commentary.

At any rate, I just wanted to say "hi", and between your BSG commentary and that statement right there, I'm adding you to my flist. My wife and I have recently had two kids, and I don't go out much anymore - quite a change from the two or three movies a week I caught in cinemas during college. And while I've mused at length about a great many aspects of the film experience, the "leaving the theater" aspect had never been considered, but seeing you put it that way... yes, that's it, exactly.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Hi ::waves::

I've missed so many movies there's going to be one hell of a backlog to see when retirement finally rolls around. LJ does help re-create the communal watching experience though.