a baby's cry

just saw children of men, and i thought it was pretty good. the movie is very bleak, both how it's shot and its central theme - a world torn by global violence and the human race dehydrated by global infertility. the story is harsh, but the image that stays with me is how it was shot. the director, alfonso cuaron, used a lot of hand held camera and i feel it worked beautifully. there are two sequences in particular - one, a long car chase shot from inside the car, and two, a gunfight scene where the camera runs alongside the hero, clive owen. both are just amazingly well done. owen is very good, solid and stark, yet hopeful... but i also think they wrote his character well. i can't say the same about the entire plot, i just wish they explained more - i wasn't sure why i was being asked to care about the main struggle, trying to smuggle a pregnant woman out of england. that being said, i thought some of the imagery was very relevant to the world we live in today, where fear of others and the common occurrence of violence heighten and meld into an apocalyptic existence.