If you’ve read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, you know it’s a difficult story. So it’s no surprise that the film version, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee, is not a pleasant movie-going experience. In fact, it’s ugly and grueling. However, it’s significant for its character development and its examination of good and evil and the lengths man will go to survive. Also interesting is how fully director John Hillcoat has created McCarthy’s blighted landscape where modern society has been reduced to savagery. And Mortensen and Smit-McPhee have difficult, physically demanding roles. Mortensen's character is a man determined to live, using every ounce of his strength and cunning to protect his young son. Smit-McPhee shows impressive range for one so young. Mortensen definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance.
An unspecified cataclysm has destroyed most of the world. The story follows two survivors, the father (Mortensen) and the son (Smit-McPhee) (or as McCarthy calls them, man and boy) as they travel to the coast and then south. The mother (Theron), who gives birth after the cataclysm, is no longer around. We see in flashbacks her increasing waves of despair that send her out into the cold dark night to die. Each day brings new dangers, including cannibalistic gangs, disease, and starvation. And each new day reinforces how alone the father and son are, but the father continually tells his son that they are ‘the good guys; they carry the fire.’ Unfortunately, circumstances can bring out the worst in man and it’s often burdensome to weigh survival against morality. Yes, “The Road” is a difficult and exhausting two hours, but that makes the hope that father and son embrace during their journey all the more powerful. 1/5/10
1 comment:
"The Road" is an excellent film but its too gloomy and dirty. When we walked out of the film I had to go home and take a shower. I must say that the filmakers did an excellent job of creating sets for this movie.
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