Distopia, despair, oppression, hope.

Clive Owen does brooding, dishevelled and oppressed like no other actor around and in Children of Men he is given full rein. Not that he is out of place, Alfonso Cuaron conjures a unique and distubing vision of the future, a distopia matched in cinema only by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. In this future, the human race is infertile and Britain although still standing is held together by a militaristic police force locking up immigrants and suppressing revolution.

Into this environment, Theo Faron (Owen) is reintroduced to his one time wife (Julianne Moore), who is yet to lose the revolutionary zeal that Theo has left in his past. He is asked to use his civil service contacts to get a girl out of the country. This girl is a pregnant African immigrant, wanted as a political tool by all sides, her only hope is for Theo to get her out of the country to a group named The Human Project – the best chance for humanity to emerge from the quagmire.

Despite the oppressive atmosphere of the film and grimy, insalubrious settings of Bexhill, the moments that stand out are those of hope and redemption, in particular a silenced gun battle near the climax is beautifully rendered.

An intelligent, adult and thought-provoking film that deals with an all too believable distopia and the reignition of hope in the face of overwhelming dispair.