UNSETTLING FUTURISTIC NATIVITY STORY FULL OF ACTION, SPIRITUALITY.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

There are those who have seen Alfonso Cuaron's landmark futuristic thriller ``Children of Men'' and have found it much too bleak for a Christmas Day release. To them, I'd say: Bah humbug. Cuaron's visionary film has everything one would want in a movie and then some.

It's a masterwork on every level -- storytelling, production design, camera work, acting and photography -- and at its beating heart is a pregnant woman about to give birth to a miracle baby, its own Nativity story if you will, taking place in a setting every bit as desperate as its biblical counterpart.

Cuaron and four other credited screenwriters have taken P.D. James' sci-fi novel and smartly translated it to screen with an immediacy that is bracing, clever and altogether credible. That it's set a mere 21 years into the future makes its familiar dystopian drama all the more disquieting. That it wholeheartedly reminds you of the preciousness of life makes it the rare action-fueled movie that can be a spiritual experience whether you love ``Die Hard'' or ``Dr. Strangelove.'' (And no, it need not be an either/or choice.)

The action is set in London in the year 2027. England is the last remaining nation after the rest of the world has collapsed. Britain ``soldiers on'' -- but at what cost? The fascist government imprisons illegal immigrants in cages and fortified compounds. Terrorist bombings (sponsored by the government?) are a daily fact of life.

Suicide pills -- brand name Quietus -- are offered by the ruling class, free of charge.

Most dispiriting of all -- no children. Something -- the movie whizzes by, offering visual cues but little in narrative explanation -- has wiped out fertility. The last child was born in 2009. Schools have been abandoned, along with hope for the future. Human extinction looms just around the corner.

Our hero is a grim, alcoholic civil servant named Theo (Clive Owen), shuffling about this miserable world until he meets his ex-lover Julian (Julianne Moore), an activist in the underground resistance.

Julian needs Theo's connections to smuggle a woman safely out of England. The woman, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), is eight months pregnant. Theo, reluctantly at first, becomes her guardian.

``Children of Men'' contains three thrilling set pieces filmed in long, uninterrupted takes that put you into the movie in such a visceral, primal way that they literally rewrite the vocabulary of action-movie cinema. The movie knocks you off balance at every turn.

Interestingly, the biggest jolt comes late in the game, when Theo clobbers an opponent in the head with a cement block. Until then, our hero had never picked up a weapon.

That kind of rule-breaking thought propels a film in which Cuaron argues that hope is a choice that humanity must either embrace or ignore at its collective peril. You can feel that conviction tugging at Cuaron's sleeve during the climactic battle scene when a baby's cry halts the bloodshed -- for a moment. Then the killing resumes. For Cuaron, it seems true change remains a generation away.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

CHILDREN OF MEN - Four stars

(R: strong violence, language, some drug use, brief nudity)

Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Running time: 1 hr. 48 min.

Playing: Pacific's Grove Stadium 14 in Los Angeles; AMC Century City 15. Expands Jan. 5.

In a nutshell: Dystopian thriller imagines a world without children and somehow finds hope. The year's best movie, a landmark of cinema.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

In 2027, Kee ( Clare-Hope Ashitey), eight months pregnant in a world that has gone sterile, is smuggled to safety in the hope of saving the human race, in ``Children of Men.''