The two highest profile releases in October, 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, both have connections to the outstanding 2006 film Children of Men, which featured the direction of Alfonso Cuarón and a standout supporting performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor. His work as Luke the revolutionary was so memorable, particularly the incredible single take car sequence that drew an enormous amount of attention. I actually began to hear critics refer to him in subsequent movies as “the black guy from Children of Men” (which I’m sure they meant in the best possible way; they probably just couldn’t pronounce his name).
In a way Luke is the villain of the film; he’s the one leading the hunt by the Fishes for Clive Owen’s character as he tries to help the pregnant Kee reach The Human Project. But Ejiofor has perhaps the most sympathetic face in the world, and it’s hard not to give him the benefit of the doubt in a role like this. We see the pain in his face and the seemingly earnest desire to do what he thinks is the right thing. It helps make an already complicated film even more complicated, with one of the faces of evil (a reductive term for a movie like this) consisting of a person with good intentions.
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