Children Of Men.

I thought I had missed this one. A movie out for 3 weeks around here isn't that common.
Missing this would have been a shame. The film truly deserves the awards it got here an there.

It's a gripping tale of redemption, set in a not-so-far future. Sci-Fi it isn't. Everything this movie describes resonnates with today's event and make the whole thing scarily believeable.
The movie keeps you on your toes at every scenes, by mixing moments light comedy with moments of intolerable cruelty. You could laugh at one moment but never know if you're not going to cry at the next. Not many films manage to do that right...

Alfonso Cuaron's direction is spot on, keeping a gritty feel, between concrete and dirt. The audience is kept close to the characters, at the heart of the action, with this feeling that in this world gone mad, death could strike at any moment. And it does.
The cast is very good. Clive Owen stands out as the lead, with a very nuanced performance, transforming convincingly the original cynicism of his character into the reckless bravery as he finds himself hoping again. But the rest deserves praises for all those characters, neither good nor bad, just human, desperate, capable of the worst or the best.

All in all, a film that shows how humanity is lost without hope, but that ultimately hope can suddenly reappear inexpedtedly even in the ones that are lost.