That's the description of the film version of Children of Men in the subheading of Mark Steyn's spot-on review. I only wish I'd thought of it first.

(Watch out for bad language -- which arguably helps support Steyn's point about just how inappropriate that language was in this particular film. Also watch out for evil screen-eating pop-up ad.)

Comments

[Farley]

I don't know quite what to make of it, but it is interesting to see the extremes of how this movie is viewed. There seem to be few in the middleground: people either hate the movie with a passion, like Mr. Steyn, or they love it, like ChristianityToday's Jeffrey Overstreet (who just placed it among the top 10 redeeming movies of 2006). I remain entrenched within the 'love it' camp, but the dichotomy is fascinating.

[taj]

That's a very sobering review. Steyn effectively captures the haunting tone of the book in the exerpts he provides.

I went out and got James's book from the library after having seen the trailer for the movie last summer. I read it, and loved it. And it seems to me either a waste of good talent, or a cave to mere convenience that Cuaron should change the vision of the film so much. Personally, I think it's the latter. That's not to say that Cuaron doesn't have any talent - he does. It's just hard to understand the decision to purchase the rights to James's book to tell such a different tale (I think this may have already been covered on this blog, now that I think about it).