P.D. James’s novel is a social-conservative dystopia about a world without children — an effort to think through the logical result of a culture so enamored of abortion and euthanasia that it literally loses its ability to produce. It’s such a rarity to have such views reflected in fiction — especially by a bestselling author whose name ensured her novel would sell despite its profound departure from her other work — that it’s no wonder the book is so beloved. But aside from its arresting premise and some unforgettable images, the baptism of kittens especially, the novel is really quite inert.

The movie is its polar opposite in almost every way. It grafts the novel’s premise onto a dystopia about, yes, the costs of limiting immigration. The plot makes no sense, and the characters do things that make even less sense. Its politics are infuriating. But while as a novel, The Children of Men isn’t very good, as a piece of cinematic storytelling Children of Men is breathtaking. It features thesingle greatest chase sequence ever filmed, and an urban battle scene of unbearable immediacy.

So the novel is a conceptual success but an artistic failure and the movie is a conceptual failure but an artistic success.