Children of Men

The Film

In the year 2027, Earth is at a point of crisis. The rest of the world has crumbled into anarchy, and only Britain, it seems, soldiers on, thanks in no small part to its authoritarian society, which brutally suppresses opposition and has ruled immigration illegal. A far bigger problem faces mankind, however: not a single baby has been born for nearly two decades. The youngest person on the planet, the eighteen-year-old "Baby Diego", recently died, prompting a wave of public mourning. It is in the midst of this grief that Theo (Clive Owen), a former political activist who now ekes out an existence as a white-collar worker, is abducted by a resistance group led by his former lover, Julian (Julianne Moore), and persuaded to help them to smuggle an immigrant, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), out of the country. The urgency of their mission soon becomes clear: Kee is pregnant.

Along with Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón has been described as one of the "big three" modern Mexican directors, a triumvirate of filmmakers who have found success both in their homeland and in the US. Of the three, Cuarón is arguably the least predictable, with a filmography that encompasses everything from the coming of age drama Y Tu Mamá También to the family-oriented swords-and-sorcery adventure Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (considered by many to be the strongest instalment in the franchise). With Children of Men, his challenging adaptation of a dystopic thriller written by crime novelist P.D. James, while in many ways thematically similar to the Y Tu Mamá También, at least as far as the protagonists' self-discovery is concerned, he breaks new ground yet again, delivering one of the most powerful films of the last year.


This is a film about the survival of humanity in an inhumane world - a world that is frightening primarily because of its plausibility. I find it interesting that one of the complaints most frequently levelled against the film is that what appears to be the central issue, the fact that the race of man has become infertile, is never explained. It's a valid enough question, but one that I suspect misses the point slightly. The lack of children is, in the end, merely a McGuffin, and intentionally so: by keeping the reason behind the catalyst to the world's demise vague, Cuarón ensures that his plot remains plausible despite the obvious sci-fi thematics. The crisis could just as easily have been global warming (a topic developed in the Cuarón-directed documentary that accompanies the film on DVD and HD DVD), nuclear war, a devastating terrorist attack, or anything along those lines. The point is not really what happened to make things so bad, but just that things are really bad. Some might see it as a cheat, but I think it's a perfectly legitimate means of storytelling.

This rationale also extends to one of the other major criticisms regarding the film: the fact that, barring a few holographic billboards for de-aging processes, the technology of 2027 as portrayed by Children of Men seems remarkably close to that of 2007. Indeed, if anything, things seem to have regressed, with the grimy council estates and anonymous tower blocks evoking the 1980s more than the twenty-first century. Again, however, the reasoning behind this have been ably explained by the director: intent on making the "anti-Blade Runner", Cuarón consciously avoided making his world appear too futuristic, as he believed that high-tech gadgetry and other forms of otherworldliness would have distracted the audience from the drama, or, even worse, made it seem like something new and exciting rather than decayed and depressive. In any event, the production design is magnificent, and entirely believable as a vision of the future.


What makes the film so believable, however, is not the script itself (which is ploddingly heavy-handed in places - even going so far as to call the person who is the key to humanity's future Kee) but rather the execution. Simply put Cuarón's technique is incredible. His camerawork is characterised by almost impossibly long, uninterrupted takes, many of which require multiple viewings in order for the craftsmanship behind them to be truly appreciated. Indeed, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki specifically asked Cuaron not to reveal the machinations behind the most complicated set-pieces. Far from merely being an exercise in style over substance, however, the visual style adds to the believability of the piece, making the events that unfold feel uncomfortably real and close to home. There's a sense at times almost of cinéma vérité in Cuarón's depictions of the events. For instance, a lengthy set-piece late in the film, in which Theo and his charges must negociate a refugee ghetto in the middle of all-out war, is reminiscent of the news footage showing, first-hand, the conflict taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan, which we have all seen. The audience has a sense of really being caught up in the middle of the conflict, meaning that the cinematic technique is not only brilliant but, for the most part, transparent.

This sense of realism extends to the film's portrayal of violence, something which is endemic in the futuristic world that it portrays. In cinema, there are generally two accepted methods of portraying violence: you can either show it in gory, unflinching detail, or you can tactfully and coyly cut away from it. Both methods can be equally effective if pulled off properly, but both can be equally tacky and manipulative. Cuarón does something else entirely: he just shows it. If a violent act is taking place, he doesn't go to great pains to showcase it, but neither does he explicitly avoid showing it. It's this more than anything that makes the events taking place seem real: when a likeable character is executed, their death is played out in long shot, in real time, without any fancy cutting, music or sound design. And it's scary.


If there are any legitimate complaints to be made about the film, it's that, besides Theo, ably played by Clive Owen (an actor I normally find irritating), no-one is really developed as a fully-dimensional character. Most are just stock personalities, like the aged hippy Jasper and the unintelligible Eastern European hermit Marichka (Oana Pellea), or flat caricatures, like the eccentric soldier Syd (Peter Mullan). That said, Jasper gets perhaps the most poignant moment in the entire film, when, well aware that he is about to meet his demise, he calmly turns on a Franco Battiato performance of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' Ruby Tuesday, and prepares a lethal dose of medication for his catatonic wife and dog. Julianne Moore, meanwhile, is her typical excellent self, but sadly underutilised, making her prominent billing (second after Owen) a rather perplexing matter. Presumably, it was considered necessary to get a major American name on the marquee.

Children of Men is probably best summed up in the scene where Theo visits his estranged brother Nigel (Danny Huston) in his penthouse, a surreal oasis of peace and cleanliness amid an ocean of strife and grime, littered with works of art ranging from a bastardised Michelangelo's David to Picasso's Guernica. Theo asks Nigel why he bothers with his art when he knows that, in a hundred years' time, there won't be anyone around to see it; Nigel replies that he just doesn't think about it. That, in a nutshell, is the film's point: the world has got this bad because, although all the signs pointed to it being an inevitability, people choose to ignore them rather than disrupt their comfortable lives. We can see it now with Global Warming - most people are well aware that it is a reality, but they choose to ignore it or, in the clearest example of wilful ignorance, pretend to themselves and others that it is "unproven" or "just a theory" (would that be like the theory of gravity, then?). Nigel is a product of a naïve, materialistic mindset, and it is this, Cuarón is telling us, that may ultimately prove to be mankind's downfall.

HD DVD Presentation

Children of Men arrives on HD DVD as a combo release, with the high definition version contained on the "A" side, an HD-30, and the standard definition on the "B" side, a DVD-9. The presentation is, in a word, excellent. This is not a flashy film, and as such lacks the "wow" moments of more effects-laden blockbusters like Serenity or The Chronicles of Riddick, but those with a true appreciation of cinema will love this incredibly rich, film-like transfer. The white-on-black opening titles show some slight ringing, suggesting filtering, and it's true that this is not the sharpest transfer you'll ever see, but the detail is impressive nonetheless, right from the word go, and the compression is handled brilliantly, with only a slight, incredibly minor instance of artefacting on a beer glass at around 21:12.

The audio is equally impressive, with the 1.5 Mbps Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 mix unlikely to cause any complaints from those disappointed by the lack of a TrueHD track. In the main body of the review, I praised the film for its immersiveness, and this is in so small way due to the sound design. The highlight is undoubtedly the desperate game of hide-and-seek played out behind a backdrop of war as any semblance of order in the Bexhill refugee camp disintegrates, but the quieter moments are wonderful too, and the clarity of the dialogue can't be faulted. A French (640 Kbps) dub is also provided, in addition to English SDH and French subtitles, which cover both the film itself and the extras.

Extras

Children of Men's extras may not seem particularly impressive on paper, but, relatively sparse as they are, they are considerably more substantial than the usual EPK fluff found on the average modern release.

The first up is a selection of three rather brief deleted scenes, all of which are reasonably interesting but not particularly momentous - they are not missed in the final cut. This is followed by The Possibility of Hope, a truly excellent documentary put together by Cuarón himself. Running for just over 27 minutes, it collects the comments of various philosophers, discussing the future of the Earth. Concentrating mainly on the dangers of global warming, it paints a very bleak picture of the future and makes for sobering viewing. Given the continued refusal of certain powerful entities in the US to acknowledge the reality of global warming, the inclusion of this documentary is a pretty bold move on the part of Universal.

Slavoj Zizek, whose comments are featured in the aforementioned documentary, also expands on his thoughts on Children of Men itself in a six-minute piece. It may get a little oblique for casual viewers or those irritated by academic film analysis, but I personally found it to be a very insightful piece, breaking down the film's key ideas and conveying them in an easy to digest manner, as well as identifying its thematic similarities to Y Tu Mamá También.

The rest of the included featurettes concentrate more on the technical aspects of the film. The 8-minute Under Attack covers the challenges faced by the production team due to Cuarón's desire for long, uninterrupted takes, paying particular attention to the complex car chase, which is shot entirely within the vehicle using a remote controlled, swivelling camera, and no operator present. The 5-minute Theo & Julian, meanwhile, is a fairly fluffy look at the film's two protagonists and the relationship between them. The 9-minute Futuristic Design covers the decisions made by their art department in their portrayal of the future, while the 3-minute Visual Effects: Creating the Baby provides a dialogue-free but interesting peek as the process of filming the protracted childbirth scene using a combination of a prosthetic and CGI baby.

As a rather generous touch, all of these extras are included on both the HD DVD and DVD sides of the disc, meaning that no flipping is required on the part of the viewer.

HD DVD Exclusive Extras

Like a handful of other Universal releases (including Miami Vice and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), Children of Men comes with a "U-Control" feature, which is essentially something akin to the "In-Movie Experience" found on a number of Warner HD DVDs, with an enhanced level of interactivity. Admittedly, the requirement of user input may not appeal to all viewers, but this is nonetheless an effective way of storing a great deal of content in a small space. In addition to the by now expected behind the scenes picture-in-picture material, U-Control also allows you to see the various television commercials and broadcasts in an unexpurgated, uninterrupted form, as well as see full-screen replicas of the various newspapers and billboards seen in the film, many of which are extremely impressive as far as attention to detail is concerned. The content is perhaps not as weighty as some of the U-Control and IME features available, but I certainly enjoyed navigating through this one, and I found the process suitably enriching.

Overall

Presenting one of 2006's best films with a stellar transfer and audio, and some genuinely informative extras, this HD DVD of Children of Men is one of the best high definition releases I've seen so far, and one that gets my unreserved recommendation. In fact, I'd even go so far as to recommend that those who are currently not yet HD DVD-ready pick up a copy, if they don't already have a copy of the DVD, given that the DVD side includes all of the content from the stand-alone release.