“Reduced to the level of a cheap feature film”?

I’m still making my way through P.D. James’s The Children of Men, and last night I came across this lovely bit at the end of Chapter 21, when Julian, her husband Rolf, and their associates have finally revealed her miraculous pregnancy to Theo:

Julian said: “Please come with us, Theo. Please help us.”

Rolf said impatiently: “He has no choice. He knows too much. We can’t let him go free now.”

Theo looked at Julian. He wanted to ask, “Is this the man you and your God between you have chosen to repopulate the world?”

He said coldly: “For God’s sake don’t start threatening. You can reduce everything, even this, to the level of a cheap feature film. If I come with you it will be because I choose to.”

Given the complaints some people have lodged against Alfonso Cuarón‘s very, very loose film adaptation, I found that kind of funny. I can’t recall if any of the film’s characters utter the specific line that Rolf does here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.