Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: John Hillcoat
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce.
The Road is a grim road journey set in a post apocalyptic America. The forests are denuded, cars lie burned out beside the deserted highways, the sky is perennially grey, and the ground is covered in ash. Food supplies are scarce. A father (Viggo Mortensen) and his 10 year-old son (Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee) make their way across this inhospitable landscape hoping to find sanctuary or a safe haven along the coast somewhere. They transport all their meagre possessions in a shopping cart. The man also carries a gun, which contains two bullets. They have to survive on meagre rations and food they can scrounge up. The man is deeply suspicious and paranoid, but highly protective of his son. The empty roads are dangerous, and are sometimes patrolled by marauding survivalists preying on the weak and looking for easy food sources.
John Hillcoat’s unrelentingly grim drama is a faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It is easy to see Hillcoat’s attraction to the novel, as his The Proposition had a similarly bleak, stark beauty to it. McCarthy’s novels have had mixed success with their screen adaptations – Billy Bob Thornton’s adaptation of All The Pretty Horses was a disappointment, while the Coen brother’s treatment of No Country For Old Men was sensational. Playwright Joe Penhall has adapted McCarthy’s typically sparse prose and while his script remains true to the tone of the novel and captures the humanity at its centre, the optimistic note at the end seems false and forced on the material.
Unfortunately we remain emotionally disconnected from the two protagonists and their odyssey. Mortensen is good as the dogged stubborn man, but his usual physical presence is subdued here. Smit-McPhee, who was so good in Romulus My Father, has less to work with here but he captures the fear and confusion felt by the character. Charlize Theron appears briefly in a series of flashback sequences, which have been added to add a sense of context to their family life before the catastrophe struck. An almost unrecognisable Robert Duvall contributes a brief cameo as an old man they encounter on the road to nowhere, and Guy Pearce also contributes a brief cameo.
There’s very little relief from the unrelenting grimness and greyness throughout, which is nicely accentuated by Javier Aguirresarobe’s stylish but gloomy cinematography. The score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is chillingly resonant. The Road has been filmed on desolate locations in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Louisiana, which powerfully adds to the haunting visuals.
***