Children of Men and The Departed

Yesterday I found myself in a rare mood. Usually when I watch movies I avoid anything too heavy, I need a little humor to lighten things up (for instance, I love Black Hawk Down because there's humor sprinkled in amongst the bleakness) but yesterday I found myself ready for more.

I found two movies on HBO that I had always been interested in seeing, but had never been in quite the right mood when I had access to them. Each of them are a couple years old, so nothing I say here is likely to be groundbreaking, but I found myself pleasantly surprised by both.

Children of Men is a movie based on the P.D. James novel starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. It takes place in the "near-future" (2027 to be exact) in a world where humankind has become sterile, no children have been born since 2009. Most of the world has fallen apart, anarchy reigns. Britain has declared all foreigners sub-human and is forming refugee camps and deporting everyone they can. In the midst of all this, is a pregnant "fugee". Pregnant. While there was some graphic violence, none of it seemed gratuitous, it all served to maintain the jeopardy of the story. In the end I found myself wondering about the attitude portrayed toward foreigners. Is it possible that the world could take such a giant step backward in so short a time? Definitely some interesting things to think about.

After that I watched the 2007 Academy Award Winner, The Departed starring....ummmm....everybody who is anyone in Hollywood. I've never been a fan of "mobster" movies, but this one seemed a bit different, so I decided to give it a try and I was pleasantly surprised. Again it displayed graphic violence, but not as bad as I was expecting and again it all served the story. The twists and turns of the cop deep undercover in the mob trying to find the leak in the troopers and the dirty trooper trying to figure out who the "rat" is in the mob kept me interested through all 2 1/2 hours of the film. My only beef, what the heck was in that envelope?! (To say more would give too much away.)

In a rare mood I chose a couple movies I would otherwise have ignored and got quite a treat. It pays to step outside your comfort zone!