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Children of Men By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Children of Men" (Universal) is a bleak futuristic political thriller with pointed parallels to the present day. A mysterious infertility has halted the birth of babies, and a disillusioned London bureaucrat, Theo (an excellent Clive Owen), races to carry the world's only pregnant woman, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), to safety, while dodging refugee terrorists, the authorities, explosions and bullets at every turn. Director Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of P.D. James' novel is intentionally dark and disturbing. But the chase sequences are undeniably exciting and quite brilliantly done, and it is in those sequences that the film is most compelling. Though the first-rate cast includes Julianne Moore as Julian, the head of the dissident group known as the Fish (and who years before had a child with Theo in his activist days); Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke, one of her henchmen; and Michael Caine as Jasper, a sort of aging hippie old friend of Theo, some of these roles can best be described as cameos. (Moore, for instance, gets bumped off quicker than Janet Leigh in "Psycho.") The somber palette and relentlessly downbeat dystopian milieu may not be for every taste, though some may discern biblical parallels in Kee's giving birth to "the miracle the whole world's waiting for," as Jasper describes it. The film contains pervasive rough and crude language and some mild profanity, crude expressions, heavy but not graphic violence including explosions and shootings, a childbirth sequence, brief partial nudity and drug use. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies. END Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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