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This week, I've taken in two impressive postapocalyptic works: Cormac McCarthy's excellent novel, "The Road," and Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's movie, "Children of Men."
In "The Road," a father and his young son wander the roads of the southeastern United States some years after a nuclear holocaust has decimated the planet. With spare prose - I finished the book in three hours - McCarthy creates a cinematic and frightening landscape, one that nonetheless pulls you in.
The novel ends on a sliver of hope. So does "Children of Men," set in the year 2027 in a heavily militarized England. The country has closed its borders to immigrants. The human race worldwide has become infertile (shades here of Margaret Atwood's landmark 1986 novel, "The Handmaid's Tale").
The hope lies in a young immigrant who is pregnant. As such, she's a hot commodity, not yet known to the neo-fascist establishment. A revolutionary (Julianne Moore) wants to prevent her from falling into its hands.
Moore's character contacts her former lover, played by a terrific Clive Owen, and asks him to escort the young woman to the offshore Human Project, a group of scientists working on the infertility problem. The movie is thrilling and thought-provoking, with the added bonus of having an effective soundtrack, one that would especially appeal to baby boomers.
Cuaron is part of the triumvirate of Mexican directors that includes his friends Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez. They're turning out some of the best movies I've seen of late. Check out del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," a dark yet beautiful and highly imaginative fantasy set in Franco's Spain, playing now at Boardman's Art Theatre.
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