Thursday, May 24, 2007

Steyn on "Children of Men"

Having neither read the book nor seen the movie, I remain neutral. Mark Steyn's review says that they are very different.

I mentioned P.D. James's thoughtful novel in my book. Then came the shriekingly bad film.

There are zillions of bad movies, but Alfonso Cuarón's film Children Of Men is bad in an almost awe-inspiring way. They should teach it in film school as the acme of adaptation. Mr. Cuarón's previous films (including A Little Princess and one of the groovier Harry Potters) were perfectly fine, and certainly different directors will approach the same property in entirely different ways. But, with Children Of Men, he's managed to spend a ton of time and money, hire a fine cast, lavish inordinate care and attention to detail on the film's design and cinematography -- and yet completely miss the point of the book.

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