★★★★ Children of Men

[Gino: 4.0, TwoShoes: 4.0, Twinkletoes: 4.0]

Gino says: "Wow. I found this film to be incredibly well-made. It was visually visceral and engulfing, and it had a very lean and focused narrative and pace. It made me want to go and take another star off of "V for Vendetta", if you know what I mean. Now, if you don't want to see a very real-feeling film about a decidedly dystopian and violent near-future, you should skip it. [Twoshoes's mom, for example saw and hated it, and Twoshoes herself, while admiring the film-making found it hard to watch.] But if you do want to see that story, by all means, I recommend this film, as I found that that tale was told very faithfully."

Twinkletoes says: "I agree that this was an incredibly well-made film. I also found it incredibly tense and involving. I really liked how they put us right into the story without a lot of contrived establishing of the characters and the state of things. And I loved how they got all of the minor details right. For instance, everything looks only slightly different than today, but a little rundown. Thethinking being if we know the human race will die out, what's the point of maintaining our infrastructure.

My only very minor quibbles with the film were:
1. A couple of minor plot events that I just could not buy.
2. The feeling at times that the film was a little heavy handed in trying to get across certain viewpoints and trying to tie it into the state of the world today. Those suspicions are supported when one looks at the special features on the disc.
3. I usually never say this but I did have a problem with the way the film ended. Not giving me any real closure made this feel even more like I was being lectured too for the previous 100 minutes.

All that being said I was not bored for one moment. And every technical aspect of this film was outstanding, as were the performances. I guess what I am saying is if it weren't for a couple of nagging things I would have thought this film was incredible. As it stands I think it's just very, very good and I highly recommend it."

Later, and e-mail conversation between Twinkletoes and Gino. Spoilers will be in red!! :

Twinkletoes: [First, he mentions how the heavy-handedness he spoke of was confirmed for him, watching some of the DVD extras.] Now a quick question for you regarding the film, did you not find it unbelievable that after the military see this baby that: #1 they didn’t take it? and #2 they still bombed the area?

Gino: Your points #1, and #2: I hadn't thought about it, but you're right.

Gino: I will say that I did not see any of the "extras" and so perhaps may have missed some of the present-day references, and so I feel that these were not a problem because: (1) how can you NOT be heavy handed with this genre (unless the events were brought about by alien (or natural) means, which honestly would take some bite out of it), and (2) given that, I think most films in this kinda sub-genre are actually more heavy-handed (though I have not personally seen many). If only by having more exposition and thus more time to "talk" about it all, which I agree was nicely kept to a minimum here.

Twinkletoes: One of the extras was about 40 minutes of current day philosophers, critics and intelligentsia types talking about the current world’s woes (unsustainable population, people not getting along etc.) Maybe my view of the film has been slightly colored by this.

I think when I speak of the relationship to the present day I'm talking about how so much of this story was about the treatment of immigrants. Really it felt as though sometimes they were telling that story more than they were telling this story about this world where the human race is slowly dying out. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked this movie and I recommend it highly. Again, it's my only complaint of the film.

Gino: About the ending: Well, there was hope in that at least she made it. Certainly not enough hope for mainstream audiences, and I would have felt better with a little more, but... I guess given the extreme tone of the film, something sunnier (for me) would have been jarring at that point -- I liked how the arriving boat was pretty nondescript (unless I missed something).

The technical aspects were really great. Putting aside the acclaimed cinematography, some of the sets were amazing, in that they were not over-the-top and felt exactly how I would think such places would be (e.g. I am thinking of the farm where the 'terrorist' gang were hiding out.) Looked lived in, improvised, etc. [and what a great little car chase]. I was glad in a sense, it took place in England, not distracting me with more familiar places. I also felt the film in general avoided excesses (other than those necessary for the extreme subject matter). Picture this film, for example, as an M.Knight S. or Ron Howard film. I like both of them, but it would not have been as good.

Twinkletoes: Regarding the technical aspects, there were some interesting insights on the extras. They talked specifically about the sets and look of the film and how at the beginning the director was a little at odds with the person in charge of this (art direction perhaps). Basically the idea was that if we all know that humans will be gone soon, why bother with infrastructure? Why bother with bringing new fashion into the world. I think in the film the start of the infertility is just a few years after 2007 so they wanted to picture what the world would be like a few years from now and just take that vision and put a layer of grime and years of neglect onto it.

If M. Knight had made this film he would have played the captain of the ship at the end and the ship would be shown sailing to someplace outside of England which is just fine and full of children..

If Howard directed it would have been an hour longer. And Russell Crowe would have played the Clive Owen part. And the last scene would have taken place 10 years further in the future, and it'd be the now 10-year old girl by herself in a lush field walking someplace unknown for a few minutes until we see her reach a playground full of children.