THE ROAD
 
STARRING: Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall,
Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Kodi Smit-McPhee
2009, 119 Minutes, Directed by:
John Hillcoat
 The
Road is a bleak and wholeheartedly downbeat motion picture . . .
As a film reviewer it’s a
challenge to stay away from those gloomy descriptions for fear of chasing away
moviegoers who only desire optimism from their cinema. The reality of the
picture cannot however be sugar coated. It’s the end of the world. There are no
heroes or prospects. The Road is a crushing dose of negative energy,
communicated through the laudable guise of a parental protection story. It’s a
searing, sporadically beautiful film, but something to tap your toes to? This
feature is perhaps the very opposite of a good time.
An undefined catastrophe has
occurred, and the aftermath has rendered the planet uninhabitable. Those still
living have worked through starvation by turning to cannibalism, wandering the
countryside looking for fresh victims to consume. For Man (Viggo Mortensen) and
his Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the ugliness of life is not an option, dragging
themselves through endless miles of peril and desolation, hopeful to reach the
coastline and onward down south. Hungry, emotionally wrecked, and facing doom
from all sides, Man and Boy continue on their journey, pushing themselves for
reasons even they barely understand. Aware that an illness is slowly taking his
life, Man hopes to impart Boy with a sense of survival and the honor of
self-sacrifice, haunted by the memories of his wife (Charlize Theron) who
couldn’t bear the new world order.
An adaptation of Cormac
McCarthy’s celebrated 2006 novel, The Road makes a great case for the
“not everything needs a cinematic adaptation” argument. Permitted pages to
illustrate psychological erosion and environmental horrors, McCarthy’s book
found the needed stability of despair that made this chilling tale of
apocalyptic acceptance must reading for millions. On the big screen, The Road
paints a disquieting picture of life after death, observing a world gone mad,
though blanketed with an unnerving mournful stillness as nature slowly breaks
down.
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"The Road is a crushing dose of negative energy . . ." |
Director John Hillcoat (The
Proposition) deserves accolades for capturing the wandering dread of the
material, constructing a wasteland of empty homes, interstates, and woods for
Man and Boy to stagger through on their way to an unlikely redemption. The film
is exquisitely austere, highlighting a terrifying future world of grimy
desperation. The images are searing, but there’s little for Hillcoat to bat
around besides endless agony.
The Road is glacial and
precise, but rarely offers the viewer something to chew on besides utter
finality. Man and Boy are thinly drawn figures of suffering, with flashbacks
filling in the gaps, but it’s not enough to make the slog nourishing. Despair
has been the cornerstone of many a great motion picture, yet The Road
never transcends misery. The picture wallows in sorrow without the benefit of
literary enlightenment. This is material that belongs solely on the page. Cinema
can’t carry the same density of fear.
Viggo Mortensen communicates
frustration magnificently and carries the picture well. Smit-McKee is a young
actor, but not a convincing one, hitting the same shrill notes of naiveté over
and over. Hillcoat would’ve been better off making the character a mute witness
to worldwide fatality. Their relationship is meaningful but not dramatic, and
the more the picture demands their viewpoint, the less engaging the material
becomes.
The Road locates a
primal survival need. That unstoppable human spirit found in some that won’t
permit failure out of fear salvation will be missed. Those are powerful moments,
but they are few in a film that lingers more than it gives. The Road is a
crushed orchid, appreciable on a visual level, but a laborious to retain,
numbing the disturbing doomsday impact and sense of parental panic.
- Brian Orndorf
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