Books, Movies and Random Thoughts

I thought Children of Men was a strong film, but maybe not quite as powerful as I’d been hoping.

There was a really rich world built, and presented with wonderful cinematography. There were also some great set-pieces – most notably [spoiler follows] the intensely moving scene near the end, where everyone stops what they are doing as Kee walks through with the baby.

I thought all the performances were strong, and the characters were a good mix of personality. And yet, ultimately, I found I didn’t really have a deep emotional commitment to any of them. Maybe it was because I had a pretty good sense of how it was going to pan out at the end – who would live, who would die, and roughly where things would be at – so although I had a few shocks of people dying earlier than I expected, there wasn’t really a huge amount of tension. Or maybe you weren’t meant to connect with them too closely. Or maybe there was a problem with the writing, or with me.

So while I thought the film built up a fascinating picture of a bleak future, and the story was in many ways very strong, in the end I just couldn’t get completely caught up in it. Which is a pity.