Alfonso Cuaron’s desire to tell a largely single person survivalist film in space adhering to the laws of real-world physics is inspirational, but his ability to execute the impossibly complex conceptual challenge with perfection and panache makes for a rip-roaring adventure picture for the ages.
Children of Men (2007) dir. Alfonso Cuarón Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore
***1/2
“Children of Men” is great entertainment and a surprisingly lightning fast tense thriller. A high-concept near-future story told very simply without unnecessary encumbrances. It’s pretty much guaranteed to satisfy.
It’s 2027 and Britain (and the world) is in a state of near anarchy. All women are infertile, cannot conceive and cannot give birth. Therefore the population is aging and the end of humanity is near. It’s been over 20 years since the birth of the last child in the world and the film opens with the announcement of the death of the ‘youngest’ person on the planet – Baby Diego. With the inevitable demise within the current generation, fear has struck the nation and as a result Britain has reverted to a fascist state. Refugees and immigrants are interned, and citizens require transit papers to travel from place to place.
Theo Faron (Clive Owen), former political rebel/activist, now cynical bureaucrat is like everyone else, passing the time with a glum apathy. His only solace are his visits to his hippie, pot smoking friend, Jasper (Michael Caine). Suddenly his long-forgotten ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore) re-enters his life and asks him for help in transporting a miraculous pregnant girl, Kee, across the country to meet up with “The Human Project” - an organization devoted to discovering a cure to the world’s infertility.
The journey takes the team through a series of tense and thrilling encounters and adventures. The film is a mixture of near-apocalyptic thrillers like “28 Days Later” and “Mad Max I”. As mentioned, despite a potentially complicated plot, the film manages to distill away the backstory, science and over-reaching aspects of the story to concentrate on the escape to freedom of Theo and the Kee. After the first act, the film is essentially one long chase film, moving from set piece to set piece. Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have magnificently choreographed the action with a series of simple and effective ‘long takes’ covering most of the action with all-encompassing wide-angle lenses and minimal cuts. The effect puts the viewer in the point of view of the main characters – action, gunfire and explosions happen behind, beside and in front the characters and we can’t possibly take it all in at once.
This is how Cuarón creates and makes believable this new world. It feels completely realistic. As Theo enters the refugee camp, the set is never established in the traditional way, with the wide-angle view everything in the background is visible and so Cuarón trusts the intelligence of the audience to fill in the picture of the future world. And deep deep deep in the background are massive amounts of a detail, from billowing smoke, hundreds of extras, bombed-out buildings, explosions etc. It’s an auditory and visual experience in every corner of the frame.
Despite the praise, I can’t say “Children of Men” is not without it’s missed opportunities, specifically with “The Human Project”. They are established as a mysterious operation, which could or could not exist. The subplot around their activities is dropped quickly and never further explored. Since this is their destination, the mystery of whether they actually exist could have raised the stakes to a higher level. Unfortunately we never doubt they will find what they’re looking for. With 5 writers credited (not including the novelist) I can assume this avenue was likely explored and then discarded in favour of the simplistic approach – and perhaps for the better. We’ll never know.
But don’t worry, the film will keep you glued to the screen for 1 hour and 45 mins, and we all must thank Mr. Cuarón for not overindulging himself with an epic running time, and believe me, he had the cache to do it if he wanted. Mr. Spielberg, are you listening? Keep it simple stupid. Enjoy.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) Dir. Alfonso Cuaron Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdu
****
Guest review by Blair Stewart
The second salvo across the board for New Mexican Cinema after “Amores Perros” success, “And Your Mother Too...” follows the post-high school exploits of two over-heated twits who con an honest-to-God Woman into taking a road trip with them with the intention of getting into her pants and the surprises that occur when she turns the table on them in sex and politics. Lower class Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and bourgeoisie Tenoch (Diego Luna), abandoned by their girlfriends for Europe and looking for drugs and p*ssy over a long summer before their university years begin stumble upon 28 year old married Luisa (Maribel Verdu) and convince her they know the location of a ethereal beach known as ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ that only they can take her to. Little do the two buddies suspect the personal crisis that she’s facing and that a trip to the ocean will change the course of their lives.
From a wryly funny and knowing script by his brother Carlos Cauron, director Alfonso Cuaron places you in modern day Mexico City with a sharp honest eye aided by the widescreen framing from long-time cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki that allows the characters space to roam, breathe and exist. What raises this story above that of a standard ‘voyage of discovery’ yarn is the awesome choice of an omnipresent narrator to tell brief stories of its main/peripheral characters and landscape and their sociological implications. It is as if Mexico itself is telling you the truth of its past and present. As the mismatched Julio and Tenoch, Bernal and Luna are excellent as little boys running headlong into adulthood and consequence while Maribel Verdu’s Luisa is the lynchpin with her intelligence, understanding and sexy jukebox shimming.
After watching this film I was struck by the disparity in present English language cinema and what is occurring south of the border through Mexico and down into Brazil and Argentina. Why do we have in our cinema a fear of sexuality and mature displays of it? Why would “Y Tu Mama Tambien” risk a NC-17 rating for showing what comes naturally to us whereas torture flicks of the ilk of the “Saw” trilogy and “Hostel” are shrugged about with their respective carnage? Is this not a worrying trend? After seeing what our neighbors can produce with cameras and talent, what does the English population of the world devote their daydreams to and are we really seeing it in our theaters? This is film without guilt; it is a blast of fresh air, it is a modern classic. Disfruta!
