[...] I doubt “The Children” would feel so important without Rose’s agenda and the challenge that comes with it. I will say only that it has to do with selfishness in both its ordinary and also its existential varieties. When Rose tells Robin that “we can’t have everything we want just because we want it,” she means, yes, the love of one’s youth, but that’s just the start. A good death is not guaranteed. Even electricity, as the local disaster has proved, is not a right.
And if, as Hazel smugly insists, you must “leave a place cleaner than you found it,” what does that mean about the earth we bequeath to our children, blotched as it is with our awful mistakes and overrun with centenarian yoginis?
Those children, with their childish parents, may have reason to think Ms. Kirkwood’s title is double-edged. Who’s selfish now?Written by Lucy Kirkwood;
Directed by James Macdonald
Cast: Francesca Annis, Ron Cook and Deborah Findlay
