Balancing Acts: Character Introductions in Children of Men

A masterful character introduction is one of the screenwriter’s most valuable tools.  Characters are the writer’s link to his audience, so their introductions must be vivid.  These introductions, also called character description, must create a mental picture of the character for the reader by detailing physical characteristics; however, the screenwriter must also give the reader some notion of the character’s internal emotional identity.  And he must do so with just a few lines of description.  In their script Children of Men, screenwriters Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton beautifully illustrate the balancing act that is character description because each introduction of a major character offers details of physicality and psychology using a mixture of language that is both abstract and concrete.

          
The first, and most important, introduction comes almost immediately.  Cuaron and Sexton introduce Theo Faron, the protagonist of Children of Men, on the first page.  “THEO FARON (55).  Detached, unkempt, scruffy beard, glasses.  Theo is a veteran of hopelessness.  He gave up before the world did” (Cauron & Sexton 1).  Barely more than two lines, this introduction fully describes Faron inside and out.  First the essentials: name and age, followed by a word that can be both concrete and abstract: “detached.”   One may be physically detached, offset, apart from the crowd, separate; yet, one may also be emotionally detached, a loner with no friends and family.  “Detached” is an interesting word choice because, as opposed to “unattached,” it implies that Faron was once “attached” but is no longer, which the story must prove to be true.

Next comes a very brief series of physical characteristics, which are absolutely necessary for that mental picture mentioned above.  The next two sentences, though, tell the reader more about Faron than any of the previous details.  “Theo is a veteran of hopelessness.  He gave up before the world did.” (1).  This gives the reader a glimpse into Faron’s heart, and reveals a potential for conflict.  These lines ask the question: How does one get a man who no longer cares to care again?  The screenplay spends the rest of its time answering that question.  All this proves that an introduction, even for the main character, can reveal all the essential information without being lengthy.

The introduction for Faron’s friend Jasper works much in the same as Faron’s.  “JASPER PALMER was young in the 60’s, and has refused to let go of his youth ever since.  Thick glasses, wispy beard, long hair, he is probably the coolest 75-year-old on the planet” (4).  A mixture of concrete details and abstract descriptions tell the reader that Jasper is an old man, yet he is young at heart.  The only difference between Jasper’s description and Faron’s is that Jasper’s focuses on his age, where as Faron’s focuses on his emotional isolation.  They do so because these aspects are each one’s defining characteristics.

The next major introduction takes a slightly different turn from previous two.  “JULIAN TAYLOR is Theo’s age, and although life has taken a harder toll on her, she still radiates the beauty of someone who believes.  A scar runs along the side of her face” (15).  There is only one physical characteristic described in this introduction.  “The beauty of someone who still believes” is totally abstract, more of a philosophical notion than an actual description.  But this is offset by the hard physical reality of “a scar runs along the side of her face.”  This introduction is the perfect example of the balancing act that is character description.  Not only does it balance the abstract with the concrete, it also balances the beauty of idealism with the pain that comes with it.  A major theme wrapped up in just a few lines of description.  That is powerful writing.

All this begs the question: which creates the vivid image, the concrete or the abstract?  To answer this question, consider that as the screenplay progresses the physical descriptions get more sparse.  The young woman Kee is simply described as “dark skinned, West Indies” (33), but the phrase, “When she was born, the world was already falling apart” (33) reveals volumes about her character.  Ultimately, what a character looks like on the outside is less important than the internal characteristics that drive her, because the internal says more about where a character has been and what she is capable of doing.  Yes, the reader needs to know what a character looks like, but an emotional characteristic must balance every physical characteristic.
~Jon Lucas Murphy