“I told the boy that when you dream about bad things happening, it means you’re still fighting and you’re still alive. It’s when you start to dream about good things that you should start to worry.”
The words spoken by a nameless man in director John Hilcoats newest film The Road, based on the extraordinary book by Cormac McCarthy. Unfortunately the idea of making this fantastic piece of literature into a film was better than the actual film it self. It was strong in some areas but fell short in others.
The Road tells the story of a man played by Viggo Moretensen (Lord of the rings trilogy) and his son as they walk along the many deserted roads of a barren and desolate post apocalyptic wasteland, trying to stay alive. Their destination is the coast.
The pair has nothing but a six-shooter with only two bullets, a shopping cart full of supplies, and each other. Together the father must protect his son from hunger, the weather, and the packs of lawless bandits that stalk the roads.
The constant stormy weather and the threat of danger make the tone of the film bleak and depressing and the film gave little hope to the main characters. Every time something relatively good happened, such as finding food, something bad would soon follow, like getting robbed.
The movie did stay true to the book, which is better than if Hilcoat had changed the plot entirely and made it like any other disaster film. But while the film was unique it didn’t really have a clear plot like trying to get to a specific destination or trying to do something. Instead it was more like one of those reality TV show’s where a camera crew follows someone around while they do their daily activities.
The film was mostly visual instead of being rich with dialogue. Most scenes were vast and beautiful ones of the man and the boy walking down the big empty and deserted roads, or showing them searching for food in farmhouses and towns. These were interesting and well done, but they became boring after a while. More dialouge and more interaction with the characters would have added more story and sped up the pace of the film.
When there was dialogue, it was short and quick like the book, but meaningful and was original. Mortensen’s character would also narrate at different times in the film, which helped speed up pace of the film a little, but it wasn’t enough.
The contrasting between the miserable reality, and flashbacks before the disaster that would show the man with his wife (played by Charlize Theron North Country, Eon Flux) that were vivid and happy, were also done well but were unnecessary and slowed the film down. They just seemed tacked on and didn’t really add anything special to the film. Also Therons whole performance was average at best and her character was superfluous.
A shining quality of the movie was that it was filmed on almost no sets. Most big Hollywood movies like Speed Racer or 2012 are filmed in a studio and all in front of a green screen and then a computer background is added in later. But The Road was filmed pretty much all outdoors in the cold and harsh weather of the east and west coast, which makes the film less hokey and more realistic.
The rest of the acting was a strong point in the film including Viggo Mortensen, who did an outstanding job. He captured the exact emotion of the father that was seen in the book. At times he loving towards his son, and at others he was firm and stubborn.
Kodi Smit Mcphee was convincing as a boy who had been exposed to this nightmarish world since he was born into it. And Robert Duvall (The Godfather) was superior in his cameo, for the three minutes he was in it.
While The Road had excellent cinematography and definitely set itself apart from all the other end of the world films, it wasn’t the greatest movie of the year and didn’t really come together. But Hilcoat isn’t to blame; this story simply was better in a book than it was on the silver screen.
However the film did do a good job of showing us the ugly truth of a post apocalyptic world. That when disaster strikes, most people will loose their humanity and do anything they can to survive, and makes your problems seem trivial compared to the problems these characters faced throughout the movie.
3 ½ stars out of 5
