Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón
Produced by: Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, Iain Smith
Written by: Novel – P. D. James; Screenplay – Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey
Original Release: 2006
Reviewed by: John J. Joex
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)
Synopsis: In the near future, the world suffers from an epidemic of infertility and by 2027 no children have been born for 18 years. With humanity dying, this leads to a collapse of most of the world governments with Great Britain being one of the few to survive, though it has become a police state actively working at evicting all immigrants. Former activist Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is contacted by the radical group the Fishes, lead by his former flame Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), who want him to help with acquiring papers to get a “fugee” (refugee) woman safely out of the country. He procures the papers, though the documents require that he escorts her, and he finds out that she is pregnant and will deliver soon. Julian wants to get the woman (Kee, played by Clare-Hope Ashitey) to the Human Project, a group of scientists based in the Azores and working on curing the infertility plague, but the other Fishes want her as a symbol for their cause. They have Julian killed and her second in command takes control of the group and plans to use Kee to further their political ends. Theo, who Julian had told Kee to trust, discovers the truth about the Fishes and flees with pregnant women through the violent streets of Britain, which is on the brink of collapse, in hopes of getting her to the Human Project.
Review/Comments: This movie, loosely based on P.D. James’ novel of the same name, presents a grim future in which humanity stares in the face of its own mortality and potential demise. And it pulls no punches as it shows that the human race has devolved to its basest, most savage nature when faced with its dire future. But amidst this bleakness, the movie presents some rays of hope that perhaps the human race has a chance to survive. It also delivers a message of redemption as Theo, once an activist who retreated to a bureaucrat’s job after the death of his and Julian’s infant son, now has a chance to make a change for the better as he once advocated. So despite its descent into the dark places of our souls and its very bleak depiction of the near future, it carries the viewer along with its promise of hope and redemption.
Director Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) gives us a striking vision of the near future that at times evokes Blade Runner, though never drifts into the more stylized dystopia that movie delivered. Cuarón’s future is more gritty and real, almost uncomfortably so. He shows a dilapidated world grasping at straws to save itself, which includes embracing racism and xenophobia, but the edges are crumbling so fast that the eventual collapse seems imminent.
And this grim social setting gives perspective to the attitudes directed toward Kee throughout the movie by the various factions involved. If level heads prevailed, Kee would have received treatment at a medical facility that could properly handle her childbirth and assure the safety of both the mother and child. But society has long since passed that level of sanity and too many people want to use her as a political figure instead of giving her the care she needs. Thus the reason she finds herself and her child in such treacherous conditions through most of the movie. It definitely made me wince seeing her run through the war-torn streets of Britain cradling her child with gunfire blazing on all sides, but this emphasizes the harshness and reality of her predicament and involves the viewers in her plight without delivering the typically ingenuine “child in jeopardy” situation that Hollywood often stoops to as a manipulative ploy.
The movie only saw limited release coming out right at Christmas time in 2006, and it did not quite register with audiences looking for more family-friendly holiday fare. However, it has since gained a well-deserved reputation as a significant entry among Science Fiction films. And while it is definitely a very bleak film that verges on daunting in its grimness, it ultimately delivers a very satisfying dystopian tale that never succumbs to the weight of its subject matter and suggests a glimmer of hope shining from its dark setting.
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