The Road

Based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Road" is a gloomy tale of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son's (Kodi Smit-McPhee) quest for survival.  Set in a period several years after an apocalypse of unknown origins, the earth is a burning, ash-covered wasteland where any remaining humans are either starving or resorting to cannibalism.  On their journey in search of a better life, it's the Father's goal to teach his young son how to fend for himself.  But with the Father's health failing and nomadic clans of cannibals on their trail, it's uncertain whether they will reach safety before the Father's time runs out.  The characters' names are never spoken in the film, and this is symbolic both of the fact that we could be watching any pair of father and son survivors as well as the dispensableness of names in this era of epic disaster.  The Father explains to his son that they are "the good guys" - probably the only ones left in this world - but when he kills a member of a cannibal gang to save his son and later robs a fellow traveller of all his clothes out of revenge, you realize that there is no such thing as "good" or "bad" anymore; people are just doing what they can to survive, no matter what the cost.  It's difficult to get through this film because it's painful to watch such hopelessness and desperation.  The movie depicts a place of such heartbreaking desolation that you could never imagine, nor would you want to.  And as you watch, you get the sinking feeling that there can be no happy ending in store for this pair.  Mortensen is at his best here.  From his emaciated frame to his mournful eyes that stare blankly out of his bone-jutting face, Mortensen looks and feels every bit the part of a post-apocalyptic survivor.  The direction is also impressive.  Every frame is shot in such a way to emphasize the utter barrenness of the landscape and the perpetually overcast sky, that the scorched planet becomes a character in its own right.  Overall, though, the pace was a little too plodding and some of the imagery too discomforting to watch.  I appreciated the film's efforts - especially the tender moments between the Father and Son - but could not get past the sadistic torture of these human beings.  And for that, I can only hope "The Road" is the one less-travelled.


3 out of 5 stars