Netflix kindly delivered Children of Men to my door last week. I have to say, after looking forward to it for months, I was quite disappointed. Christopher Orr at TNR hits most points of my disagreement with the film.
I agree with Orr that the story goes astray with its new emphasis on the “fugees,” the refugees from other countries who come to the UK in search of work. In the book, immigration fills up the labor pool, and the immigrants are treated as a necessary subclass. Cuarón flips the emphasis, imposing today’s nationalist prejudices against immigrants onto a very different future. As a result, the whole movie is sidetracked. Why should anyone care about the birth of a baby — look at all the huddled masses yearning to breathe free!
James’ book portrays a world that has run out of hope. There’s no point in doing anything because there is no posterity to do anything for. Cuarón’s world is too engaged in hand-to-hand struggle to notice that time is running out.
