top 100 films of the 2000s: #4

4. Children of Men, 2006, UK/USA
Dir: Alfonso Cuaron
Cast: Clive Owen, Michael Caine

There's a war going on. A war between insurgents and the country's soldiers. Theo (Clive Owen) has lost Kee. Kee recently had a newborn baby son and Theo has been trying the best he can to protect her and her son. When he finally tracks her down inside an abandoned building in the midst of all the fighting and the shooting, he quickly and hurriedly tries to help them escape the building and the country as fast as possible so they can reach a boat to safety.

Then the baby starts crying. When the soldiers and insurgents hear the baby's cries, the fighting immediately stops. Theo, Kee, and the unnamed baby are walking through the soldiers as they stand there astounded by the sight of this newborn crying baby. There it is. Hope. A reason to live, a reason to continue on life.

Children of Men doesn't just remind us how valuable our lives are. It tells us something about life that we may not have realized... that is, children are our reason for living. Without children, without the ability to procreate and continue human life, there is no point. Nothing that we do will be remembered. It will just cease to exist along with the rest of the human race. And in the midst of all the chaos and turmoil that comes along with a world where there's no children, the presence of a newborn child, just one child can make all the difference. That scene, that moment, is one of the most powerful and affecting scenes that I had ever seen in film up til that point. It represented so much to me, there was so much meaning to that scene that it has stuck with me forever.

But that's what Children of Men does to you whether you react to it negatively or positively. Either way, the film evokes a powerful and strong reaction because that's the nature of the film. And it gives away this message in not just its story and performances, but in its brilliant stylized camera work and cinematography. Children of Men is like an action film where the main character has no weapon. In the film's action/fighting scenes, the main objective for Theo is to run. There is no time to fight back, he and Kee must escape and there's no way out of it.

At the end of the first act of the film, you know that this movie isn't fucking around. In just one long single-shot escape sequence, Children of Men tells you that you better get ready. Get ready because this movie is not going to unravel the way you think it's going to unravel.

The film simply doesn't stop in its relentlessness until the very final scene. The final scene doesn't make everyone happy, but I love it more and more every time I see it. Because overall, this is a movie about hope even if the movie doesn't wear that theme on its sleeve. There's a glimmer of hope within everyone in this movie. The main characters all find a reason for being once they realize that there's hope for the future. Basically, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but by the end, they might not have reached that light. But the light is still there and the very end of the movie suggests that they may have finally reached it.