Children of Men

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Made with palpable energy, intensity and excitement, it compellingly creates a world gone mad that is uncomfortably close to the one we live in. It is a "Blade Runner" for the 21st century, a worthy successor to that epic of dystopian decay

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's a heartbreaking, bullet-strewn valentine to what keeps us human.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Children of Men is a nativity story for the ages, this or any other.

Slate Dana Stevens

I don't just mean it's one of the best movies of the past six years. Children of Men, based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James, is the movie of the millennium because it's about our millennium, with its fractured, fearful politics and random bursts of violence and terror.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Children of Men may be something of a bummer, but it’s the kind of glorious bummer that lifts you to the rafters, transporting you with the greatness of its filmmaking.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Working with his longtime cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, Cuaron creates the most deeply imagined and fully realized world to be seen on screen this year, not to mention bravura sequences that bring to mind names like Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This is an extraordinary artistic breakthrough from a Mexican director who was already fearlessly good to begin with.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Children of Men is Cuarón's run for freedom, with a riveting story, fantastic action scenes and acting so universally solid that even the dogs perform masterfully under his direction.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a work of art that deserves a space cleared for its angry, nervous beauty.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

At times the film is so supercharged that it glosses over the story's thematic richness and turns into a very high-grade action picture. But if that's the worst thing you can say about a movie, you're doing all right. The best thing to be said about Children of Men is that it's a fully imagined vision of dystopia.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The performances are crucial, because all of these characters have so completely internalized their world that they make it palpable, and themselves utterly convincing.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

It's a measure of Cuarón's directorial chops that Children of Men functions equally well as fantasy and thriller. 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.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

One of the year's most imaginative and uniquely exciting pieces of cinema.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It is that rare futuristic thriller: grim in its scenario, yet exhilarating in its technique.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It depicts a world close enough to our own to be terrifying, yet different enough to rouse curiosity.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Children of Men is thrilling, both for its groundbreaking style (there are action sequences here unlike any filmed before) and its complex, vividly realized ideas.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A chase movie, a spy movie, a futuristic thriller full of colorfully bizarre characters and deftly choreographed stunt work, Children of Men works on multiple levels - as action and allegory.

Premiere Stephen Saito

It's the rare sci-fi film that transcends its genre with its ideas, able to sweep one up in its not-too-distant future and yet remain remarkably prescient about the present day.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Cuarón has a gift only the greatest filmmakers share: He makes you believe.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Children of Men is a bouillabaisse of up-to-the-minute terrors. It's a wow, though.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It's a film that you need to see, not a film that you especially want to.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

A solemn, haunting picture, but it's also a thrilling one, partly because of the sheer bravado with which it's made. It left me feeling more fortified than drained. Cuarón, the most openhearted of directors, prefers to give rather than take away.

Variety Derek Elley

Picture more than delivers on the action front -- not in bang-for-your-buck spectacle but in the kind of gritty, doculike sequences that haul viewers out of their seats and alongside the main protags.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Owen carries the film more in the tradition of a Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda than a Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford. He has to wear flip-flops for part of the time without losing his dignity, and he never reaches for a weapon or guns anyone down. Cuaron and Owen may have created the first believable 21st-century movie hero.

Empire Damon Wise

A visually stunning Swiftian satire, Children Of Men may appear clumsy, but its message is simple, heartfelt and ultimately rather moving.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

As all his films have shown, Cuarón is clearly one of the most original filmmakers working today, and Children of Men should solidify his place at the top of those ranks. With a great script, there should be no stopping him.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Children of Men has some magnificent moments of moviemaking and is thoroughly infused with just the atmosphere Cuaron has aimed for. But it's so streamlined in its storytelling and unvarying in its tone that it's more deadening than transporting.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Although imperfect, it's engaging, thought-provoking stuff.

USA Today Claudia Puig

An exhilarating sci-fi action thriller with a powerful social and political message.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Cuarón relies on his ample visual style, and he has indeed created a film you cannot tear your eyes away from.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The screenplay, which differs significantly from the novel, is uneven, but the distorted mirror it holds up to the present is disturbingly clear.

Film Threat Mark Bell

The problem with the film, despite the genius of craftmanship and cinematography, is that the film doesn't really have anything new to say.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The film gradually devolves into action-adventure, then the equivalent of a war movie. But the filmmaking is pungent throughout, and the first half hour is so jaw-dropping in its fleshed-out extrapolation that Cuaron earns the right to coast a bit.

Newsweek David Ansen

Children of Men leaves too many questions unanswered, yet it has a stunning visceral impact. You can forgive a lot in the face of filmmaking this dazzling.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

As great as the film looks, the story, adapted from a novel by P.D. James, never quite comes into focus.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

As exciting and disturbing as it is in many ways, Children of Men -- based on a novel by P.D. James -- doesn't add up to a credible alternate view of the near-future: Its vision hasn't been well thought out, and, again and again, it struck me as a sloppy piece of storytelling.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Director Alfonso Cuarón has a vision so mesmerizingly terrible that it alone - at least, for those who enjoy a gorgeous nightmare - is reason enough to see the film.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Bloated adaptation of P.D. James's thoughtful, compact novel.