Children of Men

If you haven't seen the movie Children of Men, I would encourage you to do so. It stars Clive Owen and Julianne Moore, and is a grim picture of a future where the entire world is sterile and cannot have children. The story starts when the youngest person in the world dies in a bombing, which sets off some interesting events in the life of Theo (played by Clive Owen). I would definitely put Children of Men in my best of 2006 list.

But the book is better. I just finished reading the book by P.D. James yesterday (the book was written in 1992), and although I appreciate some of the visuals from the movie as well as even some of the liberties taken, the book to me did a few things better:

1) it portrayed the hopelessness of a people looking at the extinction of their race in a definitely more heartbreaking way.

2) it definitely demonstrated the universal idea that "power corrupts" in a huge way. In fact, the book's description of "those in charge" desperately trying to hang on to their power reminded me of the movie 12 Monkeys (if you haven't seen that movie, you need to see that as well), and to a lesser extent, the movie 28 Days Later.

3) although the movie contained several characters who were totally depraved, the book surprised you with which of the characters were and weren't. One character in the book seems to be a good person, until he hears a bit of news that makes him envious, and he ends up turning to the "dark side".

That said, I will always remember watching the movie and asking myself "How in the world did they do all of that in one take?" Again, you have to see the movie to understand.

Children of Men is just another example of why the book is almost always better than the movie.