Yet Another First-Run Movie
While M. was out for a bit of socializing, I took the opportunity to see Children of Men, a movie I didn’t think she’d like, howsoever much she may have been interested in it. I was right about that, but it shouldn’t take anything away from the movie itself, which, while not great, is very affecting and very good indeed. Julianne Moore doesn’t have a lot to do in it, but then neither does anybody else, really, although I guess that’s kind of part of the point and really they’re all doing such good work that you hardly even notice, sucked into the situation and the characterizations right from the start. There’s plenty of tension, understated exposition, effectively detailed settings, and anti-action sequences that leave you holding your breath. So much hopelessness that even by the end, you’re not sure if there’s any hope left, and that’s kind of the point, too. I don’t know about the original P.D. James novel, but I assume the filmmakers have opted to make it all that much more topical, if only with particular pointed references to Hezbollah-style Islamic militarism, Iraq, and torture. But while such current-affairs touch-points do their job, the larger point isn’t lost to politics. We are so cruel to one another, so devoted to our cruelty; but if we suffer, there’s someone else who suffers more, because that’s who we made them to be.