Thursday, January 11, 2007

Time for my first Film Review in my Blog...
"Children Of Men".
I'm not going to use words like suspenseful, devastating, brilliant.
(The film is, however, ALL of these).
I'm not going to discuss ANY of the plot, as you must go in,(if you have not read the book), completely unaware of the plot, in order to be as shell-shocked, as horrified, as devastated as the director obviously wants you to be.

This film will undoubtedly become known as one of the "great" films.
The reason?
This film manages--like no other I've ever seen--(and I bet I've seen a couple of thousand films in my life)to create metaphors which work on several levels, and to mirror events which are already occuring in real life, and reflect them back at us...
"Department Of Homeland Security" "Illegal Immigration"--just a few of the labels used with dead-aim accuracy in the film.
In one scene, a tiny boat, carrying a bit of what's left of sane humanity, drifts, seemingly aimlessly.
In another, a young mother is to give birth amongst chaos, and poverty and animals...
In the scene which I felt defines this film, the innocent redeem the guilty--in fact, innocence actually stops, at least temporarily, the death and destruction of those guilty of war.
It's CREATIVITY overpowering DESTRUCTIVITY--and tiny cries overpower the rat-a-tat of machine guns, the bursting of bombs, and the ringing of tinny ears...
Oh, if only the millions of children who cry out, everyday, in real-life war zones, everywhere, could have such effect.
As I said, "Children Of Men" mirrors what is already here.
If only our real world, could mirror the dark world contained in
"Children Of Men"....
Why? Because in "Children Of Men", there is, after all the absolute and utter despair--a sense of hope.

3 comments:

Collin Kelley said...

It's already out on DVD in the UK and I'm tempted to buy it. I still want to see this, "Notes on a Scandal" (Judi Dench with a crush on Cate Blanchett...gotta see that) and "Pan's Labyrinth."

Collin Kelley said...

Oy! Update the blog! :)

SarahJane said...

hi lisa -
I enjoyed the story in this movie a lot, too, and the actors. I don't think I've ever seen Clive Owen before, and he is gorgeous. I also like Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. I did find the political references a bit heavy handed, with the immigration tyranny and the visual allusions to Abu Ghraib. I think most of us didn't need all that "help" to get the parallels.
The only other thing that bugged me was the violence. I'm really reaching my limit the last couple years on movie violence - not necessarily with just this film, but with a whole string of films I've gone to see.
(congrats on your marriage btw)