Children of Men (10 out of 10)

So this week a number of the limited movies that have been lingering in NY and LA finally came to Columbus, and while I plan on seeing all of them, it was a tough decision to pick which would be seen tonight. Eventually, we chose Children of Men, which I was kind of iffy not. Not because I didn't want to see Children of Men, but because of the onslaught of movies coming up in January, I didn't want to have to compare everything to Children of Men, I would rather give some other films the chance of being the best film of the year, if only for a few days.

I anticipated this movie greatly and rarely when I anticipate does it pay off.

Children of Men is a dystopian view of the future, wherein all women are infertile for the past 18 years and thus, the world has taken on a very nihilistic point of view. Britain is one of the last bastions of "functioning" civilization, though they deport refugees and treat them inhumanely in order to maintain their status as best remaining place on Earth. Clive Owen is a London citizen, just living his life, somewhat cynical, and complacent considering how far the world has fallen. He is asked by his ex-wife and freedom-fighter/terrorist leader, played by Julianne Moore, to transport a young woman to the coast to meet up with a boat to get her out of the country. It turns out this young woman is pregnant, the first pregnant woman in 18-plus years.

This movie is brilliant. It is unbelievable. I don't want to start listing positive adjectives or I'll be here all night. Let me just say that I can nary find a flaw with the movie. It is the best directed film I've seen in a long time. There are a number of scenes where the camera shot goes unedited for minutes and minutes. I still don't know how that was done.

I don't really want to spoil anything, but this is by far one of the best films I have ever seen. Going into the movie, I had read that the direction and camerawork was superb, so I was looking forward to it and prepared. I did not expect Clive Owen's acting performance, Michael Caine's goofy character, the raw emotion conveyed so well, and how hopeful the movie is, no matter how desolate the landscape. It is incredible how deftly the movie can switch from happy-go-lucky to deathly serious and intense. There will be joking and laughing, and then suddenly an action sequence in the matter of seconds, and it all works. Multiple times I could barely breathe because every scene was being done so well. This isn't hyperbole either, this movie was just that good.

Of course, as I do so often, I need to laud the music for being great. I love movies with good music, and this has a great original score, which emphasizes opera vocals, as well as a lot of 60's and 70's acoustic soft rock that goes so well with the movie.

This movie does fall into the realm of science fiction, but don't let that hold you back from seeing this. It is very realistic and believable.

As I was leaving the theater, I overheard two people say "That was weird." ... " Yeah, that was SO weird." Weird? WEIRD? I mean, you can dislike the movie, that is your prerogative. But it wasn't an art movie. There wasn't any blatant metaphor(although there was a great nod of the head to Pink Floyd's Animals album art). It wasn't a WEIRD movie. It depicted a fictional future, but everything that happens in the movie is completely realistic with realistic human characters. I mean, 1984 was a "weirder" dystopic future scifi movie, as was 2001. Heck, Blade Runner could even be considered weirder than this, this movie is that not-weird.

Anyways, I digress.

I will talk to everyone later, Go Bucks.