It's London, 2027, and the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. The population is mysteriously infertile, major governments have gone nuke crazy—basically, things are really, really bad. You know all that war stuff that's been going on in the Middle East since, like, forever? In Children of Men, it's spread to the entire world. Britain is the last man standing, and he's about to fall.
Theo (Clive Owen) is a former activist turned government bureaucrat wasting away among the chaos, drunk and embittered. When his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore) asks him to aid a group of radicals, he ironically becomes the antiestablishment hero he wanted to be 20 years ago. His assignment? To escort the first pregnant woman in 19 years out of dangerous British borders. With that, the fight for survival begins, and it ain't pretty.
Director Alfonso Cuarón (who revitalized the Harry Potter franchise with The Prisoner of Azkaban) takes his career to a whole other level here. He expertly preys on our doomsday fears, punctuating scenes with the harsh sounds and images of war we've already heard and seen on the nightly news.
Cuarón does the impossible and covers entire scenes in single minutes-long takes, lending a powerful sense of immediacy to Theo's struggle.
And if Oscar doesn't come knocking on Owen's door again, with his incredible ability to translate both biting humor and straight-ahead stoicism, it's really time to take to the streets and protest.
Not your typical Christmas-day release, but think of it this way: After the fruitcake has been trashed and the presents opened, there will be a few more gifts waiting for you—phenomenal acting, an intelligent script and a small, but profound dose of hope, all in one package called Children of Men.