My first pick has to be Children of Men, which I was lucky enough to be reminded of just today.
Trailer here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VT2apoX90oWhat's the Story?Well, as the poster says, it's the year 2027 and for reasons unknown, the women of the world are infertile. The youngest person in the world is murdered for refusing to sign an autograph. Everyone is wandering around trying to either cling to the dying ruins of the old world, just trying to survive or losing all sense of right and wrong. The UK is now a militarized police state, and as the world outside descends into anarchy, Britain maintains order, just barely, with an iron fist, seeking out all refugees and recent immigrants and interring them in massive camps (the entire town of Bexill) in the guise of maintaining order. In short, everyone is living without hope, but more on that idea later.
Enter Theo Faron (Clive Owen) ex activist, low-level government employee and now looking like more of a broken man (for reasons spoiler-y), now approached by his ex-wife Julian (Jullianne Moore), now leader of "The Fishes" guerrilla group, to help escort an African refugee across the country (Claire Hope Ashitey) who is soon revealed to be the first woman to become pregnant in over 18 years, and needs to escape to a group of scientists tackling the infertility of humanity; "The Human Project". And thus the ante is upped.
Who's in it?
The casting is definitely one of it's strong points, two in particular. Clive Owen does an amazing job of conveying the feeling of total apathy, the world is ending after all, but also quiet conviction under the sarcastic exterior. Second, Michael Caine as a John Lennon-esque hippy. It's worth buying the movie just for his scenes. [spoiler]
[/spoiler] There are certainly no bad casting choices, and a few other good choices, Claire Hope Ashitey as Kee, the first mother in years really nails her role as well as the accent, Chiwetel Ejiofor as another guerrilla also impresses.
Ok, so that's the plot and who's in it, but what's it about?Hope. At the core, the idea is that this is what humanity without hope looks like. Hope keeps us smiling in bad times and makes us think for the future, i.e. for our children, and indeed our children themselves who are the literal future. Without that, there is no hope and so everything falls to pieces as humanity struggles to come to terms with it's approaching extinction.
It's a heavy message, one that is layered on pretty thick. Some movies have a message, but at the risk of a massive cliche, this movie
is the message. It's a lesson, like a folk tale but kick-ass.[spoiler]SPOILER ALERT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzWTIexszQBy far the best illustration of this is the penultimate scene, where mid-battle, everyone suddenly hears the baby's cry. This scene is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. It conveys suddenly the futility of what everyone else is doing, and for that small moment, people have hope again. If you hate the rest of the movie, stick with it just to make this scene more poignant. [/spoiler]
So why watch it?There's the given reasons, good cast, good story, good production etc. But there are a few things which really do grab you. First, a production detail; one-take action sequences. An absolute masterclass. Many of this films best parts are scenes which are extensively choreographed and done in one take, rather than chunks sewn together, for creating a real atmosphere of reality, one that doesn't actually look choreographed. Purely from a production point of view, this film is a must.
Art and design are inspired, creating something both familiar and distant, like a painting with colors faded. In fact design really does play a huge role, from the big things right down to Theo's "London 2012 Olympics" sweater (the film was made in 2006). The streets look neglected, and everyone looks as if they could only just be bothered to dress appropriately.
As a closing note, Children of Men is one of those films which can break your heart and lift it all at the same time. The message and the symbolism is stuck on pretty hard, but it doesn't glare out at you. Compare and contrast it to other apocalyptic Sci-Fi. Terminator, or Mad Max for instance. Yep, things are grim, yep humans are in serious trouble but no other sci-fi, really comes this close to portraying a human race that is living without hope, on the cusp of breaking and giving up. People's reactions when they suddenly discover there is hope is one of the movie's dramatic strengths, and at the end you will probably feel happy. Shaken, but happy.
Sorry for the essay, but yeah, seriously hot on this movie. Did you notice
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Topic: Hidden Gems - Under-watched/Underrated Films and Shows (Read 550 times)