Children Of Men

Because Harry Knowles knows that we don’t want BNAT to ever end, he added a couple of screenings to the event. The first one was Pan’s Labyrinth, which I’ve already seen, so I didn’t need to take up a seat to see it again.

The post-BNAT screening was Children Of Men, a movie that I’ve been waiting to see since I saw the first preview about, oh….10 years ago.

But he had a preview for us for a movie that I had never heard of:

BREACH–Ryan Phillippe (groan) stars as a new FBI agent who is supposed to spy on his boss (Chris Cooper) because he is thought to be selling secrets to the Soviets. Laura Linney co-stars as the agent who is running the investigation.

In a way, it’s unfortunate that this looks really good. I want to see it even though Phillippe is the star. I would rather it be someone who can goddam act, but the story is really interesting (and true). I’ll begrudgingly be there.

But now for the movie at hand.

About 20 years from now, the world is almost a different place. Most of it is a shambles. Only England really soldiers on as an important country and they’re pushing all illegal immigrants out or placing them in concentration camps. Why have things gotten so bad? Because there is no hope left. The human race is dead. Women have been barren for 18 years. And no one knows why.

Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is a man who no longer knows how to feel. He and his ex-wife, Julian (Julianne Moore) lost their son years ago and it hardened his heart. It’s not that he doesn’t care. He just doesn’t feel. Just about the only people he cares about anymore are his friend Jasper (Micheal Caine) and his catatonic wife, Janice (Philippa Urquhart).

When Julian comes barging back into his life with a mission and a pregnant girl named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), it starts him on that same mission. And it makes him feel again.

This movie is absolutely amazing. Every aspect of it is nearly perfect. Clive Owen and Michael Caine blow me away in just everything they do these days. Caine has to be one of our greatest living actors these days. And seeing him do the “pull my finger” trick is really something special. (Just trust me on this.)

The way the movie moves from perfect levity to horrifically tragic violence is beautiful. It comes out of nowhere and shocks you, but this is war. And that’s how war is. People die even if we’re just learning to love them. It’s terrible. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Watch for one of the most intense single shots ever put on film. (Complete with blood splattered on the lens–if it hadn’t suddenly disappeared I would have never known that they cut at some point.) Saving Private Ryan’s Normandy beach scene was better, but this was fucking amazing and heart-pounding.

The soundtrack, too, was pretty amazing. A lot of it was some pretty obscure classic rock from King Crimson to a strange cover of “Ruby Tuesday.” And any movie that includes an obscure John Lennon song like “Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple)” is awesome in my book.

As far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with this movie. It’s certainly Best Picture material. I’m really hoping that it doesn’t get passed over for Letters From Iwo Jima. If it does, it’s because this is a sci-fi film. And really, it is, but it isn’t. It’s only set about 20 years in the future and nothing has progressed so far that the world is hard to see as our own. And, as Harry said before the movie, our own world could turn into this soon even without women becoming barren. It’s not just something like that that turns people against each other and takes all of their hope away. It’s wars on terror that will never end. It’s bad immigration policy. It’s PATRIOT Acts. It’s governments that can’t get their shit together. And it’s violence for the sake of violence.

Alfonso Cuaron has created a movie that reminded me of one fact: A baby is not a miracle. Baby’s are born every day and there’s nothing miraculous about it. They are basically a chemical reaction between two cells when two people have sex at the right time of the month.

No, a baby is not a miracle. A baby is hope for a better tomorrow. It is hope that, one day, we will learn to stop hating each other. Hope that one day war will end. And hope that someday soon we will find a way to love each other.