Movie review: "Children of Men"
Jan. 24th, 2007 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugee***1/2 out of *****
Wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be, though I still enjoyed it for the most part: I just wish the screenwriter and the director had chosen to stick closer to the book (which I utterly loved reading) and gone for less of a "burning trashcan" dystopia angle. But the two central actors, Clive Owen as Theo and Claire-Hope Ashitay as Kee, were excellent and believeable, plus Michael Caine as Jasper the hippie philosopher was an unexpected delight. As itself, it's a gripping movie that holds your attention and catches your emotions and it doesn't bury the message of hope, despite the fact that the last twenty minutes basically amount to a war movie.
My worst carps are: how they handled the "Quietus" concept. In the book, it was a disturbing bit involving enforced group euthanization of the elderly infirm, whereas in the movie, it's been softened into a handy-dandy home suicide kit, which I personally find very distasteful.
Also, I would have liked to have seen more of the effects on society which the sudden rash of infertility causes, particularly the chapter in the book where Theo, as a narrator, describes how desperate women start turning to surrogates for children, from blandishing attention on puppies and kittens -- even having "christenings" for them -- to purchasing elaborate baby dolls, even one especially shattering scene where one woman attacks another woman pushing an especially life-like doll in a baby pram, resulting in the doll being shattered beyond repair, leaving them both in a panic.
And why, oh, *WHY* did they have to kill Theo at the very end? There was no reason for it, that I could see. I think he might have gotten injured in a scuffle at the end of the book, but it certainly wasn't a life-threatening injury.
Wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be, though I still enjoyed it for the most part: I just wish the screenwriter and the director had chosen to stick closer to the book (which I utterly loved reading) and gone for less of a "burning trashcan" dystopia angle. But the two central actors, Clive Owen as Theo and Claire-Hope Ashitay as Kee, were excellent and believeable, plus Michael Caine as Jasper the hippie philosopher was an unexpected delight. As itself, it's a gripping movie that holds your attention and catches your emotions and it doesn't bury the message of hope, despite the fact that the last twenty minutes basically amount to a war movie.
My worst carps are: how they handled the "Quietus" concept. In the book, it was a disturbing bit involving enforced group euthanization of the elderly infirm, whereas in the movie, it's been softened into a handy-dandy home suicide kit, which I personally find very distasteful.
Also, I would have liked to have seen more of the effects on society which the sudden rash of infertility causes, particularly the chapter in the book where Theo, as a narrator, describes how desperate women start turning to surrogates for children, from blandishing attention on puppies and kittens -- even having "christenings" for them -- to purchasing elaborate baby dolls, even one especially shattering scene where one woman attacks another woman pushing an especially life-like doll in a baby pram, resulting in the doll being shattered beyond repair, leaving them both in a panic.
And why, oh, *WHY* did they have to kill Theo at the very end? There was no reason for it, that I could see. I think he might have gotten injured in a scuffle at the end of the book, but it certainly wasn't a life-threatening injury.
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Date: 2007-01-25 01:35 am (UTC)Hope to catch you on AIM sometime, I miss talking with you!
~Ruby
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Date: 2007-01-29 08:14 am (UTC)Maybe I'll wait for the DVD, as I'm dirt poor lately. Meh >.< .
BTW.. HI RUBES!!!!!**waves ** Tsivil and Co say hi, too ^.^
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Date: 2007-01-29 11:17 am (UTC)~Ruby