Children of Men – 2006 | 109 mins | Thriller, Sci-Fi | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Mexican Alfonso Cuarón directs this bold science-fiction thriller based on the curio novel by crime-writer P.D. James, envisaging a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. Shot in energetic verité style, Cuarón creates a creepily familiar and credible vision of a violent and paranoid London in the near future. The focus on immigration and terrorism has an uneasy poignancy but after a gripping opening the reworked Christian nativity story fails to explain where the world went wrong and there’s a lack of insight into the dystopian ruling government. Clive Owen is excellent as the anti-hero but it’s difficult to comprehend his motives for completing a dangerous task. There’s  also a glorious turn from Michael Caine as an ageing, pot-smoking sage.

It’s 2027, a chaotic world in which women are infertile and the world’s youngest citizen has just died at 18, and human kind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. London is torn apart by warring nationalistic violence and a strict Department of Homeland Security is brought in to institute martial law and despatch illegal immigrants to a fortified compound at Bexhill-on-Sea. Disillusioned civil servant Theodore Faron (Clive Owen) becomes a reluctant activist when he is snatched by his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore), leader of a resistance group called “the Fishes”. His former lover requires transit papers for a young woman –  she’s pregnant, with what would be the first child in 27 years. Theo is compelled to protect her from certain peril and help transport the miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.