Miriam slowly walks forward speaking in a firm voice, “As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in...very odd what happens in a world without children’s voices.” Light is streaming in through broken windows, half of the derelict classroom is illuminated, half is left in shadows. Despair is felt in this old school stripped of it’s true occupants. But hope is right there outside on the swing set, rocking back and forth. A beautifully balanced scene, representing the yin and yang act that is Children of Men. 

Western religion motifs are also obviously present in the allegorical ties to an Immaculate Conception. One could argue this is story about testing mans/women’s faith in Gods plan. However, I think a few well-placed jibes (it’s a girl) at the Jesus story are Cuarón’s way of letting us know it’s a very multi-dimensional movie. In fact, every moment of calmness is swiftly replaced with pulse-pounding tension. Basically nothing is a given, everything remains slightly fuzzy to the point where I think the movie is less about any singular idea, and more about just surrendering to the circumstances of the moment. 

The primary premise of Children of Men isn’t that outrageous. Maybe not complete global infertility. According to studies those have remained stable for the past two decades. A general collapse of morality however, seems quite possible. Growing up today is really not like growing up in any other time period. While I suppose everyone can make that claim for their generation, what I mean is that in this information age there is an overwhelming bombardment of…well information. 

The problem is the data given is not happy information, “the news” only really spouts horror story after horror story of bombings, plane crashes, or some developing nuclear missal crisis. On top of that not a week goes by that there isn’t a new “ground breaking” study predicting our impending doom from anything and everything. Enough is enough, at some point people may just give up on caring. This world, nor is the one in this film as hopeless as the one seen in Ridley’s Blade Runner, at least not yet, but it seems that there is a clear progression towards such a thing. 

It’s like my man Clive Owen in his leading role as Theo says, “World went to shit. Know what? It was too late before the infertility thing happened, for fuck's sake.” I could dissect that line on its own, however, a lot more is gleaned from its connection to the great joke made by Jasper a few moments later. The joke goes something like; I don’t know about that childbirth problem, but this stork is delicious. The stork reference is an obvious allusion to childbirth, but it’s a great line because of how it plays off of Theo’s comment. 

Theo represents my generation, and we feel like we have been given a bum world. So naturally we ask the previous generation for advice, and all we get is the “Jaspers” with their wise cracks telling us to lighten up. On one hand it seems like there are no benefits to listening to a loony man ramble, while the world burns. I mean smoking weed is not going to put out the fires. But on the other hand, the entire world is insane. Priorities have been skewed to the point where a near death experience from a bombing is brushed off as part of daily life, while the death of the youngest living man is reason to stop and cry. 

Trying to make sense of it all is like putting the weight of the world on your shoulders. Jasper’s wife is there to illustrate that consistently dwelling on the past in an attempt at surviving the future leads to insanity. The only sane thing to do is live in the moment and laugh about anything. Cuarón is amazingly crafty here jam-packing so many details into each scene, while still allowing the movie to flow. 

The pacing is excellent throughout the film. Some of the impossibly long takes were actually impossible to shoot naturally. They had to spend countless hours seamlessly blending shots together to create the spectacular effect of a five-minute single cut chase scene. The vast amount of resources lent to pulling off complicated long takes have become a trademark of Cuarón, and for good reason. Take for example the car ambush scene; for the first minute before the action happens it honestly feels like I am in the car, its just so calming. What’s that up a head? Suddenly there is a burning car rolling down the hill, and people are charging at my car from out of the woods. What on earth is going on? That sort of effect couldn’t have been achieved if they cut in between the driving and the action sequence. 

The sense of real time occurrence creates a natural change of emotions, which is a result of truly being there in every moment. In contrast if they started with a peaceful car ride, and cut to a tense combat scene, it’s like being flashed cards. Feel calm, next card, feel anxious. That type of style was found in Spielberg’s A.I. and it worked there because it gave a robotic like feel, the perfect cold precision picking out only the essential images. But in Children it’s vital that the audience connects with the situation on a moment-to-moment basis, because it forces us to check our personal views at the door. The action is so fluid that we don’t have time to speculate on, what all this means? Or, what would I do in this situation? It’s just reactions and before its all over there is a sense that we have become Theo, and we will really do whatever it takes to make sure that the human race survives. 

It’s hard to talk about this film and not talk about religion. However, I think that the Immaculate Conception/birth of the savior and some other symbols were purposely made to be extremely cliché. To be honest, the religious parts stick out like a sore thumb, while everything else blends seamlessly. Take the barn scene for instance; a beautifully rich scene, which is so obviously Christ related that it loses most of its power. Now consider how much attention is drawn to technology in this supposed sci-fi film, there are no extensively cool gadgets, everything is just part of one cohesive environment. I think Cuarón does it this way so you know that religion is not a wanted part of the film, it’s just the baggage that comes with such a premise. For Christ’s sake! There was not one, but two scenes where they joked about what to name the child that may one day become revered. 

When Christen symbolism is left out, it’s really much more interesting to think about the last fetus of the the world. Quite possibly this one imminent birth is a fluke. So then if this new child lives long enough she may live to be the last human alive. It is quite fascinating to think about, being the last of your species. Even Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet had his daughter to keep him company. Aren’t we known as social beings? What is a human without a companion? 

Those questions don’t even matter, because it would really be the end of humanity, it wouldn’t matter what defined a human. The last thoughts of the last human would truly be the death of the species. And that’s what is at stake. Now don’t forget its all yin and yang; the mounting despair is followed with an equal growth in hope. Remember it’s a girl that is being born; she may be free of the infertility problem. Didn’t you hear the children running and playing at the end? Hope remains! 

Speaking of the end, as the ship nicely named “Tomorrow” comes closer to the rowboat holding our heroes the screen flashes to black. In neat white letters we see for the second time, the title Children of Men. The opening sequence is the first time we see this cut to black with white letters, right after a bomb blows up a coffee shop. In that scene we see Theo leave the café while everyone remains transfixed to the T.V., which is reporting on the death of the youngest person. Contrasting both the beginning and end is perfect. The beginning we get the bleakness that is felt in this world, then at the end we realize that if we live for today tomorrow against all odds may hold hope. On top of that, the choice of black with white letters is mirroring the actual symbol of yin and yang. 

The true beauty of this symbol is that the darkness is not opposing the light; it’s a circle, half of it is white with a dot of black and the other half is black with a dot of white. There is no true separation, the existence of one thing is held within another. Looking back to the beginning and end sequence’s again, an interesting observation can be made; in the beginning, Theo exits the café before the bomb explodes and kills everyone. A spot of life within the death; in the end, Kee and the baby survive to spread life as Theo dies. A spot of death within life. Each of these scenes represents half of the circle, either yin or yang, but both are followed by the black and white title page to complete the circle. 

“Yes cough! You taste it? It tastes like strawberries!” it’s the best line in the movie and by chance Jasper says it twice. No, no not chance, it is definitely scripted. Making me wonder why weed, specifically the strain strawberry cough (a real cannabis strain) is so important in this film? Just a warning, I am going to get a bit crazy here. The reference is related to Jasper being a personification of the Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever. The song’s chorus is “Let me take you down - 'Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields - Nothing is real.” Jasper is there to help us tune out the false reality of fear that is so prevalent in the movie. His vision of the world is quite different then most, and like the song it’s a narration of things that are not linear. I think I may be grasping at straws for this one, but it’s fun to theorize about how the ideas of the past and present get reincarnated into the future.