Week Of December 18, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri

December 22, 2006

Blood On The Lens

It took a while to figure out, but I finally got a handle on what I think is right and what I think is wrong with Alfonso Cuaron, Chivo Lubezki, and Kirkland & Clay's Children of Men.

My problem has been that I was expecting too much. I don't feel too bad about this, since the reason I was expecting so much is that the movie kept telling me to expect more. But the film is essentially a new-era Hitchcock thriller or, more specifically, a man-caught-up-in-something-he-didn't-see-coming-who-gives-himself-over-to-a-cause-that-he-barely-understands-because-it-seems-right-and-he-needs-redemption movie.

Basic.

But put in a world of worldwide infertility, hyper-obsession on immigration, with endless references to unpopular military actions now and in the past (from Nazi Germany to Iraq), and suggestions of deep, important ideas being conveyed, the movie fails utterly to be about anything but a very beautifully done exercise on post-Gilliamesque film artistry.

Now, in this day and age of meaningless, roman numeraled crap, I suppose I should join happily in a celebration - at least by critics - of this near-perfect effort in substantively substance-free cinema. I should be sticking my hand down my pants with the rest of the smart boys when an 8 minute sequence that is made of at least two shots, but seems seemless, hits the screen. But, alas...

The long battle sequence is, actually, the least effective of the visual trickery in this film. In my opinion, you watch the sequence extremely aware that you are watching a stunt, especially when in the first half a blood splatter hits the lens and is left for us to watch, completely disregarding the broken fourth wall, until the shot shifts seamlessly to another and the blood mysteriously disappears. Unless, of course, Cuaron and Lubezki put the blood on the lens digitally in the first place… oh, what big teeth you have, my dear.

Much more effective and valuably claustrophobic is a sequence in a car in which the camera has an actual point of view (there is none in the aforementioned shot, which follows Clive Owen around). I don't care how many critics say it, there is no great value to the seamless battle sequence. In fact, we lose any sense of what is going on other than Owen's experience, which is not really the point…

Unless it is.

Watching the film again, I started wondering about the Wizard of Oz component. Was the whole movie about a man who was destroyed by losing his child, imagining a world as broken as his heart, fantasizing about reconciling with his ex-wife who left after the kid died, safe only in his parental home, only to be challenged to growing up and getting over his pain.

But somehow, it just doesn't fit. The fantasy element of a film like Brazil just doesn't fly here, in part because Cuaron doesn't show the humor of Gilliam. And he also doesn't show the powerful subtext that lives in all of Kubrick's post-Spartacus films, though at times it screams, "Kubrick!," as loud as it can.

The truth is, as magnificent as the movie universe that Curaon and Lubezki and production designers Kirkland & Clay and hundreds of others create, the $30 million version of this film by Cuaron might have been significantly better. Because then Curaon wouldn't have been worrying about creating a really cool universe, but in dealing with characters as he so often has.

The reason why the Michael Caine character (and a brief fight between Owen and Julianne Moore about their past) is the most resonant thing in the entire film is that we love that guy and we love that he loves his catatonic wife and that he understands and cares for the Owen character and being a pothead and pot salesman is just part of this unpretentiously spiritual character. Owen is tremendous in this role. Near perfect, really. But the character isn't rich enough to make him a truly memorable character. He is the Henry Fonda of this film. But the movie keeps claiming it wants him to be Cagney.

The pregnancy is, for all intents and purposes, a McGuffin. The whole issue of the world being unable to reproduce is a distraction. Aside from the personal relationships and fears of the individuals - well drawn - the big hook of the story means absolutely nothing. It really is just a story point.

And for me, that is an irritant. It is such a big, profound idea that not exploring it in any considerable way is frustrating. In this movie, the pregnant girl could have just as easily been a blood diamond, wanted to fund the resistance. It's lovely and poetic, but it goes nowhere. Likewise the many references to the American incursion into Iraq and subsequent issues like Guantanamo. People are treated terribly by the government in the film and if that is enough for you, so be it. But when I see governmental abuse, I do not simply assume that the rebels are righteous… especially when the rebels show themselves to be less than honorable at times. But it isn't discussed in any meaningful way.

When you think about Terry Gilliam's films, you realize that what works so well in them - among many things - is that they stick to the personal, even when the backdrop of the world of the film is horrible. As complex as Brazil is, it comes down to a man dreaming of his personal and spiritual freedom. Munchausen is about faith in what seems impossible. Twelve Monkeys boiled down to a man desperate to get back what he lost (which makes it analogous to this film… except this film fails to deliver on that promise). The Fisher King was about acceptance of self.

It was J Hoberman who helped me, unknowingly, in getting some clarity on Children of Men. His review didn't answer any of my questions about what the film was ultimately about, but it informed me with the lack of those answers.

Hoberman, amusingly, compared the film to 12 Monkeys as a film being dumped by the studio releasing it and the stench reaching critics, even in NYFCC. But Jim didn't do his homework. After a one-week award qualifying 3 screen release, 12 Monkeys opened wide (1533 screens was wide in 1996) and was #1 on that wide opening weekend. It was also #1 in its second weekend. And it went on to gross over $57 million domestic. Universal would be thrilled to get to that number on C.O.M., even without adjusting up to $75 million or so for ticket inflation.

Hoberman writes, "Like Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the Wachowski Brothers' V for Vendetta (and more consistently than either), the movie attempts to fuse contemporary life with pulp mythology."

Well, there you go. For me, War of the Worlds was a miss and V for Vendetta was an extremely intimate piece of filmmaking, turning on character moments much more than the impressive scenery. And the idea was simple and the drive clear… a man who had been damaged by the government returned to remind people that they could not be both free and complacent. Simple. There is nothing that clear about Children of Men.

It's not that the film is without ideas. But they are shallow. By the time the boat called "Tomorrow" came, I could only roll my eyes and stifle an out-loud laugh.

Still, it is a magnificently crafted film. And for that alone, it is worth seeing.

Just don't expect too much.

E Me.

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