Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

". . . Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou sayest, Come again, ye CHILDREN OF MEN. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: Seeing that is past as a watch in the night." -- from Psalm 90.

The year is 2027, and "Baby Diego," 18, youngest human on Earth, has been stabbed to death near Buenas Aires. The Joseph of our story, Theo Faron (Clive Owen), hears the news while carrying out his soul-destroying job. Russians, Spaniards, and Arabs are everywhere around his rubbishy Old England. When not ruthlessly murdered, they're rounded up, bags placed over their heads, and sent to concentration camps. The Siege of Seattle is in Day 1000. Worse yet, all men have become sterile.

"The World has collapsed," the BBC announces. "Only Britain soldiers on! . . ."

And then, guerillas known as the Fishes kidnap Theo. His estranged former lover, Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), mother of his dead child, is the leader of this particular Fish cell. She has found our Mary, a black African teenager: Kee (Claire-Hope Ash!tey), amazingly, inexplicably pregnant. Of course, around the inn barn where she is kept, a potential father is nowhere seen. Theo is reluctantly persuaded to fatherly guard this precious body to a hospital ship for an attempt to save the human race from itself.

In their adventures, Theo appeals to his old New Age guru buddy, Ex-Political Cartoonist Jasper Palmer (Michael Caine), who knows that good weed will open prison gates. But Cousin Nigel (Danny Huston), a Government Minister, who lives in luxury, surrounded by looted art treasures ("Guernica," for instance), will be of no help.

How can Theo, thru car bomb and commando shell, rescue Kee, the Hope of the World, from the wrath of philistines and inscrutible modern Pharaohs?

The above synopsis wraps up the plot of Writer/Director/Editor Alfonso Cuaron's CHILDREN OF MEN.

--------------
The spectacularly filmed, edited, and scored (Sir John Tavener), CHILDREN OF MEN, based on P.D. James' 1992 novel, is a modern Bible Story, but not the kind the ultra-faithful recognizes, President Bush welcomes, nor either zealot cozens to.

Held back, ignored, put down, an ad hoc rebellion required to force Universal to support its advertising campaign, the film has run into trouble such as plagued 11'9"01 or THE QUIET AMERICAN. It only eexpanded bookings, and began to show profit, after being nominated for several Oscars.

Aside from more possible conspiratorial interference, the picture's American Market problem might be encompassed by a reaction on the IMDb by one "endhits86":

" I felt very disappointed and misled by the title. With my Midwestern 40 something mother of two and housewife's mentality I went into the movie with my husband believing I was going to see men giving birth to children (hence the title, "Children of Men"), but instead I was forced to witness gratuitous violence, drug use, and what seemed to be a thinly guised indictment of American policy in the post 9/11 world. . . . I was appalled by the interracial relationship that seemed to be forming between kee and theo, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think I felt comfortable with an African woman being the only fertile female left on the face of the planet. It seemed to me very unchristian. . . . "

If "endhits86" is not putting us on. rejoice, dear heart. Just over the wire: "Environmental Factors Turn Male Frogs into Females!"

Can mean 'n lean men be far behind?



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older