Precious Cargo: "Children of Men"

"Children of Men" , written and directed by Alphonso Cuarón, starring Clive Owen, Micahel Caine, Julianne Moore, and Clare Hope Ashity

Director Alphonso Cuarón and several screenwriters have adapted mystery writer P. D. James’s futuristic novel "Children of Men" into a truly remarkable film. Possibly the best film of 2006, though it came out late in the year. Even with the premise dealing with decades of a puzzling, incurable infertility and its resulting consequences, the book and the film are entirely different animals, much in the manner of "Blade Runner" versus Phillip K. Dick’s "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Both novel and film are excellent vehicles for telling the story of its unwitting hero, Theo Faron.

Set in 2027, "Children of Men" is an unsettling, disturbing, suspenseful, futuristic film. It opens in London, where anachronistic three-wheeled taxis vie for road space with old, unkempt double-decker buses. The world is in chaos; suffering from a plague of infertility and rampant civil war. In London, dissident groups of men and women in their 20s and 30s blow up buildings, buses, and trains to protest the millions of refugees arriving from other chaotic countries. Guarded by armed militia, hundreds of elderly Eastern Europeans, in overcoats and hats, cry out from jammed cages seemingly on every corner, ready for deportation. Posted signs everywhere warn people to be on the lookout for illegal immigrants, and to report any suspicious behavior (like on BART, today).

Shlumpy, disheveled, unshaven Theo, a perfectly cast Clive Owen, is on his way to work at the Ministry of Energy. TVs in homes, stores, and subways, show non-stop vivid images of bombings in cities around the world, as a voiceover and logo proclaim, "Britain Soldiers On!" These are interrupted by reports of the death of the world’s youngest person, a delinquent, 18-year-old Hispanic boy. Theo stops for take-out coffee at a café, crowds watching the wall TV, mourn. Theo is unmoved. He leaves the café as the building next door is bombed, shaking him up.

Theo is kidnapped by a small group who call themselves Fishes (nothing to do with the Christian symbol, but because they swim against the mainstream). Their aim is to stop the government’s treatment of refugees, among other demands. One of its leaders is Julian (translucent Julienne Moore), a woman with whom Theo had had a child twenty years ago, back in the days of their earlier activism. When personal tragedy involving the baby, struck, Theo split. Now, Fishes ask him to approach Nigel (Danny Huston), who is, ironically, Theo’s estranged cousin. Nigel has anointed himself Warden of England. Theo is to ask Nigel for transit papers for a girl, Kee (Clare Hope Ashity), a "fugee," so she can leave London. Theo is never told why he must do this, but when things get really hairy, he is shown why by the girl, herself. It is a startling revelation that could be the beginnings of a new World.

The beauty of Theo’s character is in his reluctance to get involved. Why me? All Theo wants is to go back to his cozy apartment. The discovery that the Fish have turned on each other for possession of Kee and her precious cargo, pushes him into action. To make it through the devastating, harrowing warfare breaking loose all around them, Theo and Kee are assisted by his scholarly, old hippie friend, Jasper, in shoulder length white hair (Michael Caine in a delightful rôle); Jasper’s off-the-charts black clad, paramilitary contact, Sid (code word: "Fascist Pig". Sid makes casual conversation through a hands-free microphone while driving his super-armored Humvee), and by Marika, a colorful, motor-mouth Gypsy, who arranges for a rowboat hopefully to take Theo and Kee to safety.

In light of recent policies in so-called developed countries dealing with the "problem" of immigration, "Children of Men" is prescient. One has only to read the news to see this. Should the immigration issue not be resolved in a way which will benefit immigrants and their host countries, it could end up as it is depicted in the film. Granted, there is the matter of the infertility plague, which only exacerbates the situation. "Children of Men," gives us a dystopian view of the future. In a January 8 interview with "Newsweek’s" Nicki Gostin, Clive Owen, responding to her allusion that the film is depressing, said, "I think it’s full of humanity. Cuarón has made a film set in the future that’s really an excuse to talk about things going on right now."

"Children of Men" is still playing on the big screen and should be seen in that mode before it goes to DVD (unless you have a giant flat screen TV). See it at San Francisco's Century Theatre in the SF Centre on Mission between 4th and 5th or at Berkely's UA Berkely 7 on Shattuck.

NOTE: This review was recently published in the print media in a severly edited version which totally omitted the film's main focus: the startling infertility plague.