A BREATHTAKING, intelligent thriller, Children Of Men is one of the best films of 2006.
Set in 2027, this is not so much post-apocalyptic as an illustration of a believable collapse of society thanks to pressures that already exist: environmental, political and social.
A totalitarian UK seems to be the last bastion of civilisation in a world where women have all become infertile. When the world's youngest person dies, aged 18, people seem to lose all hope.
We see this credible landscape through the eyes of civil servant Clive Owen whose revolutionary ex-wife has discovered the first woman to become pregnant for 18 years.
She may offer humanity's first sign of true salvation.
Their bid to lead the woman out of the country - while avoiding terrorists, criminals and immigrant-hunting police and soldiers - is exciting and intensely emotional.
Written and directed by Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men should be compulsory viewing for Hollywood directors who churn out by-the-numbers nonsense every year (yes, Michael Bay - I mean you).
The action is filmed in a documentary-news style that completely absorbs the viewer.
They are also all done in one take which provides a logistical nightmare - but truly amazing cinema.
You know its good when you forget to breathe. And that happens more than once.
The fact that it's set in this country actually improves the experience as everything is so familiar This is a truly great, absorbing and very real movie.
8/10 Great
