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Children of Men - 7/10
I wish I liked this movie more. I really wanted to love this movie.
While I admired its gritty realism and the performances of the two main characters (and, of course, Michael Caine - the only fleshly character in the whole film, afaic) this movie left me wanting. I wanted more characterization and less message (much less message). I wanted to understand more about these people and how they were affected, emotionally and psychologically, by the world they lived in. Not that I don't understand how they could go about their day largely without noticing the insanity around them. I understand the near-instinct we all have to rationalize our world in order to find the wherewithal to ignore the insanity and keep going. I don't know. I guess I felt I needed more backstory on the world they lived in. It seems a story more well-suited to a novel - perhaps it was one first, I don't know. If so, I'd be interested in reading it. As it was the instant immersion into this world without sufficient background felt a little like starting a new video game. And I just can't make those same concessions for film.
Somewhat of a spoiler:
Spoiler: And one more thing, the thing that bothered me most about this movie, why is it that human females were infertile but not animals of other species? This plagued me through the whole film. Perhaps someone with knowledge of a biological precedent for this sort of thing could enlighten me. My daughter thought that she had heard of this sort of thing happening with rodents and rabbits before, but she wasn't sure.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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