Children of Men...

[neotoma]

I finally saw Children of Men today, as a postponed birthday out with sanj.

If it's still playing near you, I recommend you go see it as soon as you can. In some ways it's a brutal movie (but brutal in entirely different ways from Pan's Labyrinth, which I also recommend most highly).

Alfonso Cuarón did an amazing job with the story, P.D. James' foray into Future History. Clive Owen is amazing as a burned-out ex-activist just trying to get through his life when his ex (an intense Julianne Moore) drops a figurative bomb in his lap.

Claire-Hope Ashitey is so good and damned charismatic that I hope she gets lots more work, in serious roles because she's too amazing to be wasted on the pieces of fluff her beauty would normally get her.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is wonderfully ambiguous, though I really need to watch him in roles where he's not a heavy; fortunately, Kinky Boots is in my Netflix queue.

And Michael Caine is wonderfully off-the-wall as Jasper, who turns out to be stunning as well.

you do walk out of the film feeling like you've been whacked with a hammer. But in a good way.

ETA: I wasn't sure that I bought Britain as the last bastion of civilization, but sanj convinced me that it would have to be someplace small enough to be effectively controlled and able to isolate itself -- Britain and Japan were the two places we came up with. Australia was considered but thought too large. Anyone else want to contribute an opinion?

Comments

[twistedchick]

When you get Kinky Boots in, I really would love to watch it. Care to haul it down here for the big screen?

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I certainly would. It'll be in two or three weeks, depending on how fast I get through my queue. I'm mainlining Sports Night (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165961/) and Toshiro Mifume (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001536/) movies at the moment.

[twistedchick]

Mmmmmmm. Sports Night. (I did write stories about that...)

Chiwetel's also in Love, Actually (which I have) in a small role.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

I walked out unsure if I desperately wanted to go see it AGAIN RIGHT NOW NOW NOW or never see it again because it was so... exhausting. Involving. Stressful. Time (it's been over a month) has tempered this reaction to the point where I mean to see it again in the theater and know I MUST own it (though I can't imagine ever being able to settle enough to watch it for the world without being caught in the story and action, despite how much I *WANT* to examine the world with a fine-tooth comb...).

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed. I still need to see Pan's Labyrinth.

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

Sounds as if the film's not my bag, but I nominate for refuge: New Zealand, Madagascar (after all, the nearby mainland has probably gone to hell in a handbasket already), but not Iceland (or Greenland), because civilisation had almost/actually died there already once: climate means survival requires outside support, whereas the nominations are fertile, with quite a lot of variation. Australia is not only too big: it's too dry without adequate technological support; there'd be enclaves on various bits of the coasts where, again, climate provides adequate support. However, there'd be ruinous competition, and never any sense of security.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Does New Zealand have enough people to keep up an agricultural/industrial base? And keep out the refugees coming from Australia?

The movie is good, and worth seeing, but you might want to wait until it is out on DVD if you think you'll need to take breathers for the gory bits.