1-18-07, 9:14 am

Children of Men Director, Alfonso Cuarón

Mother nature has given up on humanity. The evolutionary process has ceased, and the world of human beings has become a 'failed state.' This is the background for Children of Men (directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and based on a P.D. James novel). Set 20 years from now in a dystopian London 'soldiering on' despite the collapse of the global order, widespread fear of terrorism, and xenophobic retaliation against immigrants, Children of Men is a story about the end of human life on the planet.

Until a miracle happens. Kee (Claire Hope Ashitey), a Caribbean immigrant known as a 'fugee,' is about to give birth to the first human child in more than 18 years, and a disillusioned and drunk bureaucrat, Theodore Faron (Clive Owen), has to help her escape Britain to the only possible hope for humankind, the mysterious and mythical Human Project.

In his youth, Faron had been an idealist and left-wing political activist in love with Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), but the death of their aptly named son Dylan (is the name a reference to the 'rage, rage against the dying of the light' Dylan Thomas or the 'A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall' Bob Dylan, or both?) has turned his heart cold to ideals and politics.

On a request from Julian, Faron approaches his well-placed cousin in a government ministry to secure a transit pass for himself and Kee to get out of London. The two meet in the cousin's austere, but large and rich apartment, into which have been collected some of Europe's finest art treasures, including Michaelangelo's David and Picasso's Guernica. The irony, of course, is that one British official possesses these great symbols of European humanism just as humanity is about to end its time on the planet. During their flight, Faron and Kee are aided by Jasper Palmer (Michael Caine), an aging hippie and former political activist who lives alone with his catatonic wife, cultivating designer marijuana, listening to avant-garde music, and commenting on life. This wonderful character is brilliantly scripted and acted, and also provides a moment of escape and comic relief from the despair and sorrow inflicted by the movie. The performance should earn Caine some well-deserved Oscar 'buzz.'

Fleeing both the British police and renegade elements in the underground movement, Faron and Kee seek assistance from a corrupt cop and refugees from Russia who proudly display images of Lenin in their humble abode.

Without a doubt, the images in the film should remind us of our own times, in which the global 'war on terror' is a politically-motivated travesty. As in the movie, terrorism and xenophobia are used to cow the populace, while war and violence are perpetuated around the world for profit and power. But in this sea of pain, misery and despair ordinary people are able to act to save the one hope we have for a different future.

Maybe the film's argument that “the children are the future' will appear corny to some, but perhaps only to those who have become too callused by all the hate and war in the world. With threats like nuclear annihilation, global epidemics of various sorts, rampant poverty and hunger, and ecological disaster looming, humanity's real fight for survival seems more in doubt, but more necessary than ever before. And the film's suggestion that an alternative to the present system of fear-mongering and violence, repression and decay – a human project – is integral to survival seems fitting as well.

This is a brilliant film driven by imagery, collective memory, and emotion as much as it is by a well-written story full of believable characters. It is poetry on the big screen.