Having viewed sci-fi films with similar plots (ZERO POPULATION GROWTH, THE ISLAND) about the last human beings escaping to a safe haven, I never expected CHILDREN OF MEN about a similar journey undertaken by Theo, a former activist (Clive Owen) and the miraculously pregnant woman, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to a sanctuary at sea to pack such a punch.  Based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James, the film works as an adult futuristic nightmare chase movie.

The basic plot is simple enough.  Set in the year 2027, humankind has not produced a baby in 18 years.  The Human Project is man’s only hope for scientists to save the human race – if it does exist.  So when Kee is found expecting, rebel and ex-lover Julian (Julianne Moore) enlists Theo to help.  The rest of the film traces the journey ***censored*** chase of the duo through the battle torn streets of London to Sussex.

One reason the film works is that Cuaron’s film feels frighteningly real and current.  The year 2027 is not that far away from the present and the depicted problems of illegal immigrants, terrorists, military brutality depicted are just as hot as today’s headlines.  The London created is a bleak one with gloomy and cloudy skies.  Even when the sun shines in one scene, the brightness emphasizes the grey that is around.  Yet, the streets are strangely familiar.  Cuaron picks the Whitechapel corner of Piccadilly Circus and the familiar dockland areas of East London to set certain scenes.  The Zone 2 viewed in one scene indicates that the tube system is still divided into its 6 zones.  The rubble, rocks and dilapidated buildings could very well look like the construction around King’s Cross Tube.

The many unanswered questions in CHILDREN OF MEN are brilliantly sidestepped.  The character Nigel (Danny Huston from THE PROPOSITION) replies when asked the reason he keeps all the valuable art if the human race is to disappear in a hundred years: “I just don’t think of it!” Similarly, when the question arises in the film as to the reason of infertility or the re-mergence of pregnancy, various possibilities (e.g. pollution) are just thrown at random with no solution even considered.

It helps that the peripheral characters, Julian, Miriam (Pam Ferris), Syd (Peter Mullan) and Jasper (Michael Caine) are intriguing though they are dispatched one after another at a pace as quick as the duo outrun their captors. 

Cuaron captures the desperation of the situation very well.  The best chase segment has Theo frantically pushing and trying to jump-start the runaway car with the pursuers not far behind.  The bus scene in which Miriam, amidst Kee’s contraction pains, is taken away is as suspenseful as a similar bus scene in Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN.  Cuaron even amazes with a touching nativity scene where Kee first reveals her pregnancy in a barn full of animals.  The film is also bitingly hilarious at parts, the banter between Kee and Theo during the delivery of the baby standing out as the funniest.

Amidst all the chaos depicted in CHILDREN OF MEN, the sight of the miraculous baby in a mother’s arms is as hopeful to cineastes as the resounding fact there can always be welcome surprise entertainment re-treaded from a used idea in the well-worn genre of sci-fi.  Despite the ambiguous ending, Curaon has crafted a neat tale of a future that looks very much like today.