The End of the World As We Know It

The year is 2027…the world is in chaos…and humans can no longer procreate.

It is enough to make anyone say they don’t feel fine, and it is the basic plot of Alfonso Cuarón late-2006 release Children of Men – a film that has made several critics write addendums to their year-end Best of lists.

You know what, Children of Men should make anyone, including me, try to go back in time and try to amend certain choices. I’m not talking about silly lists anymore, but about the choices we make every day because they will be our undoing.

Yeah, it is that powerful a film.

Grim beyond the breaking point, the reality of this world is never quite fully explained (or, better yet, understood). Not that it matters greatly. Mysterious factors have rendered the Earth's population infertile – that’s all we need to be concerned with, really – and Great Britain is one of the few functioning countries left in the world, although it is being run with a totalitarian fist and foreign-born citizens are being deported without mercy.

The future, ironically enough, lies deep inside a refugee named Kee (fantastic newcomer Clare-Hope Ashitey), whom freedom fighter Julian (Julianne Moore) has entrusted old lover and former fellow fighter Theo (a phenomenal Clive Owen, whose brutish cynicism gives way to becoming heroism in a performance that shan’t be overlooked) to smuggle out of London to safety.

This miraculously pregnant woman is the key to a new tomorrow, and Theo is her gateway. And as heavy as the theme of the film might sound, Children of Men is key to our present’s film experience.

My Rating ****

Photo: Universal Pictures.