THE ROAD: Director John Hillcoat’s “the journey of a father and son”!
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“The Road,” the highly anticipated and much-delayed adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, aspires for greatness. And in many ways it succeeds, from its stunning visual design and sensitive performances to its overarching tone of mournful spiritual reckoning. With a surplus of post-apocalyptic/disaster flicks present in today’s film circle, the Road does what very few films in any genre seem capable of doing. Here is a picture that in it’s own discreteness captures the realism of a holocaust horror, combining the absolute worst possible future with the most profoundly beautiful human characteristics that keep the main characters persevering. Among McCarthy’s blessings here is Viggo Mortensen, who delivers a haunting, deeply felt performance as a nameless man leading his young son (newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee) through a landscape charred by an unspecified disaster.
Not only does the story accurately exhibit the polar opposite aspects of a post apocalyptic existence, but the cinematography used during the flashbacks of a life full of color and hope many take for granted, is excellently positioned with the dark, dismal, and often terrifying reality that is the Road. The score was also fantastic and perfectly appropriate for the film. The choice a young pregnant woman (Charlize Theron,makes as the cataclysm approaches, is tough and would disturb some viewers but the final act offers an indelible image.
Director John Hillcoat, whose last film was the 2005 Nick Cave-penned The Proposition, does something a lot of directors are scared to do these days and that’s allow long stretches of silence. These moments are intense and haunting and will eat at you. Hillcoat is also honest with the audience and shows the struggle the Man has with whether it’s better for him and the Boy to live or die. Mortensen plays the part perfectly and it invokes many anxieties in the viewer.
Its up to the audience to decide whether you like the film or the book. So go and watch it.
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