Sunday, January 07, 2007

Children of Men: Best Movie in Ages

Go see this movie ASAP. Man is it a corker. Based on the novel by mystery writer P.D. James, Children of Men looks at a dystopian Britain in the year 2027. Due to an unexplained pandemic of female infertility, no children have been born since 2009. Clive Owen is a former activist who is enticed to smuggle a young refugee, and her secret, out of the country.

Not only does this have a great look, fantastic performances (Michael Caine as a dope-smoking former political cartoonist), and a thought-provoking premise, the visual sequences quite literally left me breathless on occasion. You'll love the world's slowest getaway scene and the long single-take scene in which a car is attacked is a wonder in this day of cheap CGI shit. The entire thing is shot from the interior of the car - you are there. Amazing.

I'm a junkie for '70s movies- films that told a story and developed characters and concentrated less on the more technical aspects of film-making. Much of modern cinema leaves me very, very cold. This movie was a refreshing change of pace and one I'll be thinking about for ages and ages.

3 comments:

Jay said...

That's good news! I've been excited to see this for the last few weeks. In fact, I almost posted a little blurb about it before it was released.

Joe said...

I really want to see it. I went to the movies with my brother-in-law over the break, but we weren't allowed to go to Children of Men b/c out spouses wanted to see it as well. We say 'Rocky Balboa' instead. You'll notice the lack of posts extolling its virtues. Because it sucked.

Jay said...

What, Dreamgirls was sold out?