First ‘No Country For Old Men,’ … now ‘The Road’

There has never been a more stunning or more absorbing vision of the post-apocalypse than that of “The Road.” Whether it be the eerie cinematography of a hopeless world left in ruins, the near-perfect page-by-page adaptation, or Viggo Mortensen delivering the performance of his career, director John Hillcoat embraces every single aspect in Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed novel, making “The Road” one of the most powerful motion pictures I have ever witnessed.

The opening shots penetrate the narrative almost immediately into the dark atmosphere where we see a Father (Mortensen) and son (Kodi Smith McPhee) walking through a desolate landscape that has become buried underneath endless canopies of ash. To hear McCarthy describe these images in the book is one thing, but to see all of it come alive on the big screen is so chilling, you can practically feel the blood drain from your face within seconds.

The world ended 10 years earlier, and while the film never explains what exactly happened, several ideas are hinted at in a series of flashbacks. It is also through these distant memories that we are introduced to the man’s wife (Charlize Theron), and how she couldn’t bare to witness the inevitable demise of a world that just suddenly “burned out.” This is the only point where the film takes a notable shift from the novel by providing a deeper background on the mother. I’m sure some of the extra attention is due in part to Theron’s reputation. But nevertheless, her extended presence in no way shape or form overshadows the strong theme of dependency that carries the two males as they must survive a long journey to the coast.

Shooting on location in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Hillcoat and his production team have created a stellar vision of what happens when fate makes its final move, and all senses of hope are literally washed away from existence. There’s no power, no vegetation, and no food. All that’s left is a little amount of questionably sanitized water, and a few survivors who have been pushed to the limits of human instinct, and will do anything to stay alive.

The father and son have nothing but a push buggy to carry what few resources they have, and as they encounter a series of desperate thieves, and even a gang of cannibals, we soon realize that beyond the common nature of parental guardianship and child obedience, the two protagonists are more than just father and son; they are each other’s world entirely, and if something were to happen to either one of them, the other would be just as well off dead.

It’s become somewhat of a trend for end-of-the-world/survival sagas to rely on one man to carry most, if not all, of the film’s weight, and even when the overall payoff wasn’t so good, Will Smith (“I Am Legend”) and Tom Hanks (“Cast Away”) both managed to provide excellent leadership in the past.

Mortensen may be getting a little help from pre-teen McPhee along the way, but bringing out all the potential in the film’s narrative is ultimately in Mortensen’s hands. Whether it be pointing a gun at someone he deems threatening, or watching his 10-year old son taste Coke for the very first time, Mortensen hits every note to perfection in a role where playing a hopeless character could very well make him a hopeful contender at the Oscars.

When I first read McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel years ago, I recall saying numerous times to myself: “This is a movie just waiting to be made.” I didn’t even realize until about halfway into it that all the main characters are nameless. Going into the screening, I wondered if keeping that same form would work when it made the jump to film, but Hillcoat understands the underlying motives of the story, and structures every scene in a way that manages to keep the emphasis set not on who the characters are personally, but what they represent in the essence of human survival.

Say what you will about how most of us weren’t good enough to work on the lot, but when you hear critics say “it’s more than just a movie,” this is exactly the kind of film we’re talking about … one that is fully alive in every which way to the point where you leave the theater knowing you have been affected by the experience of seeing it. Only then do we know that we have paid good money to see what I like to call … a masterpiece!

Grade: A

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 20 2009. Filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry