Thursday, January 25, 2007

Children of Men

Tonight was the night for my date with Clive Owen... oops I mean Jeff. I dragged him off to Boston Pizza for some pasta (pre-movie bribery) then off to the 4:40 viewing of Children of Men starring, if you haven't guessed, Clive Owen.

The just of the film is thus: Mopey office man (Theo) is brought into a rebel brigade by ex-girlfriend and mother of his dead child with the purpose of getting some travel papers to get a young girl out of England. It's 2027 and not a single birth has occurred in 18 years. The young girl is pregnant and they want to keep her safe. Mopey office man quickly bites off more than he can chew.

This is a dark movie, much like 28 Days Later, except without the zombies. Lots of explosions, car chases and mass murders. Michael Cain has a small role as the most "excellent" best friend. Julianne Moore plays the girlfriend but don't go to see her if you're a fan. It's a very small part. Clive Owen is actually quite natural as this character especially in the one-on-one scenes with Cain.

I have two peeves. The propagation of humanity problem is because of women's eggs. In the 1994 book of the same name by author P.D. James it was the sperm count that was affected. Hello? Women are always to blame.

Second peeve, throughout the whole movie cats, dogs and various wildlife seem attracted to Theo. They make a point of showing it so I kept thinking it would come up at the end why but it never did. Even Jeff kept expecting something more. While the story is complete in the main story sense I felt there were gaps that may have been edited out. I'm looking forward to special features when it comes out in rentals.

I'd watch it again. Even if you're not a Clive Owen fan it's worth seeing. I want to read the book now.

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Topic Links
* Children of Men by P.D. James from Amazon
* 28 Days Later from Amazon
* P.D. James Official Website

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

They seriously changed it from sperm to eggs? That's an absolute disgrace! I'm outraged!