Children of Men:
Immaculately Conceived
Grim Look at Future Features Standout Performances

Perhaps my favorite film genre of all time is the one that shows the viewer a bleak yet hopeful glimpse the future. Even as a kid, movies such as Rollerball, Silent Running, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Soylent Green held a special place in my heart.

Clive Owen and Clarie-Hope Ashitey star in the new movie Children of Men.

Movies like Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner, RoboCop, and Serenity are films that I could watch again and again. Somehow, I feel that these films about the future are a separate category from the more fantasy-oriented sci-fi flicks like the Star Wars series.

2007 has just begun and already there’s a fantastic new film about the future…and my, oh my, is it bleak. Children of Men takes place in the year 2027. For some unknown reason, the entire human race has been infertile for the past 19 years so it is a world without any children. It is also a world where even cities like London and New York look like Baghdad. Riots, explosions, gunfire and graffiti dominate the landscape as a severe form of nationalism has gripped Britain causing its citizenry to demand the expulsion of all immigrants, now dubbed “fugees.”

Clive Owen plays Theo Faron, a fairly apolitical bloke who gets caught in the crossfire between government authorities and a protest group called the Fishes, led by his ex-wife Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore). When he discovers that the Fishes have found a young pregnant girl named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) and are planning to use her to blackmail the government and/or recruit resistance members, he takes it upon himself to try to bring her to the sea where a sanctuary group may or may not be waiting.

There’s little more to the plot than that but it is pulled off in such an intense and mesmerizing manner, that I can’t recall a more exhilarating two hours at the cinema. Bleak and occasionally violent, with odd bits of humor thrown in, Children of Men is that rare film that completely immerses the viewer in a believable alternate reality. While I’m not sure that I want to anoint it as the next Blade Runner, it has a clear vision of the future that it maintains for the duration of the film.

Children of Men is also helped along the way by solid lead performances by Owen and newcomer Ashitey. The gravity of the situation is reflected in their eyes while their characters are just flawed enough to make you want to pull for them. Owen’s selection of scripts continues to impress after recent outings in Sin City and Inside Man.

Once again (as in Batman Begins and The Prestige) Michael Caine commands attention in limited screen time. As aging hippie political cartoonist Jasper Palmer he serves as the conscience and heart of the movie and also helps tie it to our own time. After meeting Jasper, you’ll never think of the words “strawberry cough” in the same way again!

Director Alfonso Cuaron is quickly making a name for himself with films such as Y tu mama tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. His dark, human style and un-Hollywood way of turning characters into people you might meet every day make him a director to keep an eye on.

Children of Men is rated R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity. It is currently playing at Regal Cinemas in Boone.

SAG Award Nominations

Last year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards were a strong indicator on how the Academy Awards would play out. The drama Crash won the Best Picture Award from both organizations and the three SAG winners for Best Actress (Reese Witherspoon), Best Actor (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Weisz), repeated their victories when Oscar Night rolled around.

Perhaps that’s why there was a lot of interest in this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations, which were announced last week. The SAG nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture went to Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, Bobby, The Departed and Dreamgirls. Although this award is the equivalent of the Academy’s Best Picture award, SAG puts greater emphasis on the actors’ performances than on other elements of the film.

SAG nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role include Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond, Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, Peter O’Toole for Venus, Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness, and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role nominations went to Penelope Cruz for Volver, Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal, Helen Mirren for The Queen, Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada, and Kate Winslet for Little Children.

Male Actor in a Supporting Role nominations went to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed, Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children, Djimom Hounsou for Blood Diamond, and Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls.

Female Actors in a Supporting Role nominations went to Adriana Barraz for Babel, Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal, Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine, Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls, Rinko Kikuchi for Babel.

The 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be broadcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 28th.