by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated R 109 min
In this grim vision of the future, filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron’s film adaptation of P.D. James’ novel has interesting parallels with today’s embattled world. Set in England in 2027, the world looks a lot like today-- a series of endless wars and conflicts with one major difference. For some inexplicable reason, women stopped having babies in 2009. The human species is in decline. Fear, desolation, and anarchy grip the earth. Governments are nothing more than police states fighting various militias and protest groups with their own agendas.
Once an activist, Theo Faron (Clive Owen) has settled in at a boring bureaucratic job. His child died in a serious flu pandemic that swept Britain. His ex-wife, Julian Taylor (Julienne Moore) leads a group of revolutionaries fighting the government over its cruel immigration policy that is systematically deporting all foreigners, regardless of how long they’ve been in England. Marshall law rules. Like today in Iraq, large numbers of people are dying for no reason other than getting caught in the crossfire.
After 18 years of no new babies being born, the human race faces extinction. Yet, there is one woman who is pregnant, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashley) and she carries the hope of humankind in her belly. Julian’s band of fighters are protecting her so she can make it to a ship called The Tomorrow that will take her to an island where genetic experiments are being conducted to save humankind. It is called the Human Project.
Wisely, Julian only trusts Theo, her ex, and she commissions him to take the job to be Kee’s bodyguard to get her through the various checkpoints with forged papers. Of course, it’s a dangerous mission and Theo is no hero. So he offers to do it for money–5,000 pounds.
The hook of the premise is Theo’s and Kee’s dangerous journey through the battlegrounds of England, dodging the British military and the various insurgents they are fighting. In many ways, their trek is symbolic of Jesus’ birth, as they face many obstacles to delivering Kee to the safety of the Human Experiment.
As the two unlikely allies make their way across country, they meet another militia which clashes with Julian’s group. Tragedy strikes the travelers, and they take refuge at one of Theo’s close friends’ hideout. He is an old long haired hippie named Jasper Palmer (Michael Caine) who lives on a high security compound where he grows pot and takes care of his wife who has Alzheimer’s.
Caine’s eccentric and funny sequences as the fatalistic pot-head Jasper are bright spots in the otherwise dark mood of the scenario. When Theo and Kee set out, she was almost due, but in a particularly dangerous part of their escape, her water breaks and she goes into labor. A crazy old lady gives them shelter in an old building where she gives birth. Now, she has the most important human, a girl, ever born in her charge, and her trip to safety is in great jeopardy. In fact, they try to escape through a ferocious firefight between British soldiers, armed with tanks and other heavy ordnance, and the battle hardened insurgents. Getting out of this jam will be a miracle.
Owen portrays Theo with skillful subtlety and an exterior coldness masking his inner-conflicts. Clearly, he’s disheartened by years of grief, his divorce from Julian, and the terrible disintegration of the British culture that he sees every day on his way to work. He has lost his will to fight, and has taken a middle road just to be comfortable in his depression. He carries a bottle of whiskey as his only friend. Taking this job as Kee’s protector is the most righteous thing he has ever done in his life.
Now that Theo is committed to this mission, he and Kee must deal with radically changing life and death situations. Gradually, Theo gains back his self respect. Suddenly, he’s having to make critical decisions, but his dedication to saving the miracle baby and Kee never wavers. This baby represents hope for all humankind. In this respect, the girl baby is a new Messiah.
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