According to Sandy

The movie, “Children of Men”,  is set 20 years into the future.  Women are no longer able to bring a fetus to full term and a 17 year old, the youngest person in the world, dies suddenly which brings universal mourning.

Perhaps as a result of air and earth toxins new life stopped being created and supported by the universe. Based on results, mankind is on a slippery slope.

Enter the “miracle” –  a sole pregnant woman is discovered in England and she must be saved if the human race is to go on.

A reluctant savior, Clive Owen, at his craggy faced/ 2 day stubble best, is enrolled by his ex-wife in taking the young woman to safety. Thru bullets, treachery and strange, fierce characters, he must get the mother-to-be to an outlawed group called the” Human Project”. They search for doctors that can keep her and the baby alive – and so the adventure begins.

The movie is both dark in atmosphere and premise, the film’s city scenes are mostly sepia and gray contrasting greatly with the few lighter, green country locations. The director, Alfonso Cuaron, wrote the screen play based upon a 1992 novel by P. D. James, famous for the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh mysteries. Her vision of a barren future was translated by Cuaron into a cramped, desperate city filled with angry, lonely people.

While on the run, the fugitives do get a chance to experience the lush greenness of the countryside, but, the pastoral is slowly being encroached by the urban insanity. Huge betrayal and huge amounts violence is encountered while trying to escape those who wish to use the baby for propaganda and gain. In the midst off all this dreck, there is a possibility of “future”.

The baby represents “hope” and many are enlisted to assist in preserving the miracle, keeping it alive and getting it to a haven, even at great risk to themselves.

A totally engrossing film. The actors are all terrific, regardless of the length of their scenes or dialogue. Owen is wonderful, and so is Michael Caine. (He makes an appearance as a kind eccentric.) The actress who plays the mom to be, Claire-Hope Ashitey, makes you believe that she would be a great mother – even though her character only remembers seeing children on television. The ending is both triumphant and tragic.

“Children of Men”– this is a good movie!

“The Godfather” films by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books by Mario Puzo lives on. Parts 1, (1972) and 2, (1974), re explode every 6, 12 months on some TV channel.  If you don’t have 8 hours to devote to this great American story, you could plug in whenever – meal times, in between telephone calls or text messages – and remember dialogue and revisit scenes that have soaked into our collective bones without even knowing it:

“It was never personal Michael, it was just business”

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

“I know it was you Fredo, your broke my heart!”

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

“They shot Sonny on the causeway”

“The Godfather” is #2 with a bullet on the American Film Institute list of 100 best. If not on TV,  there is always DVD and it just came out on Blu-Ray.