The Dark and Depressing Past & Future

Because I'm avoiding my work (hey, it's worked for 2 weeks, why not 2 days more?) I'm going to mention 2 excellent movies that you should all see. I saw them on consecutive nights and I actually think that enhanced the experience.

The Good Shepherd was first. Given the marketing of this one, I'm sure you all know what it's about - the birth of the CIA. It was very well done, although you like the secondary characters far more than the main character (Edward, played by Matt Damon) because he essentially has no sense of humor. That's okay though, because we're not talking about a movie that's meant to be big on the laughs. I had moments of disbelief and the time periods got confusing (it switched from just after the Bay of Pigs disaster to a progressive look at his past) and the kid kind of annoyed me, but they always do, so that's just me I think. The movie tried to balance Edward's personal and work lives, but it tips towards making his personal life more important when you really want to know about the CIA. There's one scene reminscent of that really uncomfortable scene in Casino Royale, which even had ME crossing my legs. It's the most heartbreaking scene in my opinion, but also one of the most powerful for that reason as it involves the torture and interrogation of a Russian spy. (Hello, allusions to present day political life.) De Niro, who directed, is also my favorite character because he seems most comfortable with it. Probably because he's worked on this little pet project of his for 10 years. I wouldn't say it was worth that entire 10 years. Maybe 7?

The next night I saw Children of Men, which has just come to the US after being released months ago abroad. The premise is that in the future, women will have been unable to have children for about 20 years. Obviously, this kind of depresses the world and it descends into chaos. And then one girl gets pregnant. It has Clive Owen as the main character and although they tout Julianne Moore and Michael Caine, they have about 20 minutes screentime combined. Caine is excellent though and worth seeing the movie just for him. Kee, the girl who is pregnant, is played fairly well, although in the beginning the actress (an unknown) lays on the accent a bit thick and you can't always understand her. There's a lot of Christian symbolism here, but you can enjoy it without being conscious of that fact. Clive Owen's Theo is another not entirely likeable guy, but you do like him for some reason - probably because he's so pathetic. Kee is kind of headstrong but otherwise you don't know anything about her, so she comes across as kind of 2D. After watching TGS though, the dystopia of the future is even more believable and I have to say that the cinematics are beautiful. I hate gore but Cuaron keeps all the truly horrific images out of focus or in the back of the frame, which gives you the horribleness of war but doesn't set aside your appetite for 2 days.

So if you're feeling fatalistic or morbid or whatever and you want validation of why you should feel that way, that's what you should go see. Not that any of us have the time or money. But hey - at least these protagonsists have got it worse.