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Plot

In the year 2027, there has been no more human reproduction for years due to mysterious female infertility, and the last young survivor has just been murdered, leaving the world without hope. Extremist group attacks, threats, and urban guerilla warfare break out everywhere. All immigrants are regarded as criminals, and state borders are locked. Every foreign national is arrested by the police and taken to designated ghettos for an unclear, but obvious end, under a harsh martial regime in a London shaken by the predicted collapse. Theo, a bureaucrat who was formerly involved in peace activism and is himself a man on the margins, is abducted in this chaotic, out-of-control society. His ex-wife Julian, the leader of a rebel commando, would beg him to use his political connections to acquire an entry visa for a black lady who is eerily pregnant as she is the mastermind behind the kidnapping. What will start out as a straightforward favor will turn into the last-ditch fight for human life for everyone, but especially for Theo.

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Why you should watch it?

"The Children of Men" plunges us into an evocative futuristic London, painted with a fascinating visionary quality, with landscapes cloaked in the ashen colors of autumn to evoke the apocalyptic atmospheres of the post-catastrophe period (enhanced by Emmanuel Lubezki's masterful photography): Similar to the earlier V for Vendetta, it paints a grim picture of the present and future, but in the climax it offers the symbolic and freeing consolation of a glimpse of light (reiterated in the end credits by the festive voices of children). As a result, dystopian science fiction serves as both a grim warning about the perilous ethical and political drift of modern life as well as a commentary on its racial hatred, economic inequality, and social degradation as well as its mass consumption and perversions of human baseness.

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The Children of Men subtly introduces a thick narrative and conceptual machinery full of sociopolitical ramifications that, while being encased in a dystopian plot, yet seem to be relevant today. The line between the terrible Hitlerian tactics carried out by the imaginary British government and the cruelty of the "Fishes" terrorist group's style of operation is difficult to distinguish, and it gets very thin. The two sides, ironically, decide their positions beyond morality itself by using violence to further their respective moral worldviews.

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In this sense, Theo is portrayed as a person who, in an effort to distance himself from the conflict between the "Fishes" and the State, succeeds in revealing the situation's more overtly human side. This is done through sensitivity and expressiveness, which enable the viewer to not only relate to Theo's character but also cove hopes for the mission's success. Theo manages to distance himself from the insurrectionist position of the terrorists throughout the course of the movie, especially when it becomes clear that the girl's salvation is necessary for the future of humanity rather than to act as a support for the message that the Pisces wants to convey and try to leg. This peculiarity, as Cuarón (the director) succeeds in making very clear, does not in itself mean supporting the insurrectionist position of the terrorists.

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The movie, like others by the same filmmaker, succeeds without ever going overboard in making the spectator feel something viscerally as well as intellectually. Violence exists, but it never becomes complacent. One cannot avoid the spectrum of emotions staged thanks to the long shots; towards the conclusion, one is taken aback by how well-balanced and realistic it all feels.

However, there's more. Nowadays, the majority of movies (and TV shows) that are popular at the time of their debut quickly fall into obscurity. Few things endure over time, and even fewer things end up being classics. Children of Men, which was hardly known when it came out but has since become a modern classic in its genre, is getting less and less relevant each year, which is not always a good thing. However, there isn't much to be happy about when a dystopian movie holds up remarkably well.

Conclusion

A movie I absolutely recommend if you haven't seen. The last shot of Kee holding her newborn child in a sea of fog as everything around her falls apart is beautiful and symbolic. In the promise of a future free of dystopia, fiction and reality collide. Our playgrounds are still occupied even as the denatality issue in the West becomes more and more serious. The future is there, increasingly entrusted to a small boat adrift.

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Rating

My personal vote is:

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8.5/10

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