According to Colwell

It seems there’s been a rash of English post-apocalyptic movies lately: 28 Days Later, V for Vendetta, and now Children of Men, in which the form of the apocalypse is the sudden and complete infertility of the human species. Set in England 18 years after the last human birth, the movie portrays a glum and depressing society in which people have a package from “Quietus” at home that lets them decide when to check out of the terminal human condition. The English, with a stiff upper lip, are apparently faring better than the rest of the world which has collapsed into chaos. Determined to hang on until the bitter end, or until a miracle occurs, England hunts down and deports all immigrants who have fled to the country from the mess outside. Hope for a miracle rests with “The Human Project”, a group of doctors working to cure the infertility problem in some peaceful, isolated location. The Azores are mentioned, but most people don’t even believe the project is real.

Set against this hopeless backdrop, the movie follows the efforts of Julian (Julianne Moore) and a team of pro-immigrant rebels who have roped Julian’s ex-husband Theo (Clive Owen) into getting a pregnant woman (Kee, played by Claire-Hope Ashity) to the coast where they hope she will be picked up by a Human Project boat. There’s not much sense of hope in this movie, yet I found myself very much hoping for Kee to make it. Her journey is treacherous not because people want to kill a pregnant woman, but because the environment is the dangerous near-chaos of the fringes of a police state. The movie satisfactorily addresses the obvious question of why she doesn’t just see some government doctors in England. England, although it bravely “soldiers on”, to quote a billboard in the movie, is too far gone to be a safe or helpful place for what is perhaps humanity’s last best hope.

The movie poses an interesting and different hypothetical situation that creates some eerie images. Schools, no longer necessary, decay into ruin. People, still healthy, go about their business, but all are wondering what is the point if not only civilization, but the species itself, will no longer exist in 40 or 50 years. Children, it is clear, keep us all going.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.