Children of Men Abandoned by Hollywood, Adopted by Fans

MaryAnn Johanson,  Jan 10, 2007

I was hauling groceries down a busy Manhattan street with a friend the other night, raving about Children of Men and how mind-blowing the film is and how brilliant director Alfonso Cuaron was on the Sci Fi Channel making-of special talking about creating the journalistic look of the film, and a total stranger who happened to overhear me stopped us to ask, "Is it amazing? Is it really great?" He felt compelled to tell us that he would be seeing the film that very night. He hadn't even seen the movie yet, and already he was caught up in the strange groundswell of intrigue and fascination and culty, geeky adoration that is already growing up around the movie.

But that was New York City. Meanwhile, a commenter at my FlickFilosopher.com [at the end of my review] wailed: "OK, just WHEN does this movie open in anything other than 'selected' cities -- and who selected those cities, anyway?"

Lots of people, it seems, are sharing that pain, are feeling cheated and scammed by Hollywood ... or more specifically, Universal Pictures, which doesn't seem to know what to do with the movie. Truthdig is trashing the studio for woefully mishandling what has become an "orphaned masterpiece," picking up on J. Hoberman's rant in the Village Voice about how the lack of buzz, which is down to Universal's poor marketing, is killing the film.

But maybe not. Because fans have taken up its cause. CoM has been in theaters in England for quite a long while now -- it's already landing on DVD there next week -- which is helping generate transatlantic grassroots efforts on the film's behalf. Cinematical tags the film as "part of a new wave of fan-made trailers" ... the best of which, viewable on YouTube, captures the film's bleak mood far more evocatively than the studio-produced marketing, and does so without committing the unforgiveable sin of revealing the big surprise that comes about halfway through the movie.

I so wish Universal had not spoiled that for those who hadn't read the book, which will be most moviegoers. But even if you've been unlucky enough to have encountered that spoiler, don't let that stop you from seeing the movie, because it's about so much more than the mere gimmick of a twist (not that it's a gimmick here, but it could have been, in the hands of a less talented filmmaker).

And heading to the multiplex and buying a ticket is the best way of showing your support for the film, and for others like it. Universal may not have thought they had much on their hands -- it's just another sci-fi flick, right? (wrong) -- but we can prove them wrong, and show that we want more movies as smart and thrilling and complicated as this one.

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MaryAnn Johanson
author of The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride
minder of FlickFilosopher.com