02 Jan 2010, Posted by Alex Shofner in Articles,Film Reviews,Reviews, 0 Comments

The Road Review

The latest Cormac McCarthy book to be adapted into a movie, after the overwhelming critical success of No Country For Old Men, recently opened in theaters. McCarthy’s post apocalyptic tale The Road follows a man and his child struggling to survive in a world where nearly everything has died.

The film version was directed by John Hillcoat, whose previous film was the critically acclaimed Australian western The Proposal. It stars Viggo Mortenson as the man and the newcomer Kodi Smit-McFee as his boy.

Anticipated highly by audiences and critics alike, the film may have suffered from over-hype due to the widespread knowledge and love for the novel.

We follow the Man and the Boy (no names are ever given) in a world where all life has been reduced to the search for three things: food, warmth, and safety. The title comes from the fact that they are always traveling along the road, ever going South in the hope of warmer climates and the search for some place that has survived this planetwide disaster. No details are ever given for the cause of the disaster, but the world seems to be suffering from some sort of nuclear winter. All plant life has died, and rampant fires from the dead forests and abandoned buildings is a constant threat.

The only hope for food comes from scrounging through any remains of civilization for anything: morsels of food, canned goods, anything they can lay their hands on that hasn’t already been ravaged by those that have gone before. Judging by the age of the boy (who was born soon after the event), the two have survived in this world for around ten years. The ultimate fear is that of cannibals, and the two harrowing encounters with groups of cannibals are the most intense in the movie.

The film stays surprisingly close to the book (though it expanded largely on the smaller role of the Wife, played by Charlize Theron), and I loved the book, but something didn’t quite work about the film. The cinematography was beautiful and did an excellent job of fleshing out the futility and despair in the new world, but the story wandered and felt inconsistent at times.

I found myself surprised that the two could have survived so long in the world and still act so dumbly at times. Walking into suspicious looking houses, waiting too long to hide at signs of trouble, squandering even the tiniest morsel of food when they don’t know if it will be the last meal they find. If you spent ten years in that world, I’d imagine you would have your survival method down pat.

Near the end, they finally find an oasis of hope, and stumble across an old bomb shelter, stocked with hundreds of canned goods, shelter, alcohol, cigarettes, and many of the trappings of the old life. Yet instead of saving each morsel to enable themselves to live for years, they gorge themselves, and then abandon it irrationally. It reminded me strongly of the gas crisis that hit Atlanta and Nashville, among other places, last year. Suddenly everyone conserved, limited their travel to the essentials, and bemoaned having wasted so much when gas was plentiful. Then, when the crisis abated, everyone went back to their old, gas guzzling ways. I fear what happens when the gas at the pump runs out for good.

Maybe the film couldn’t measure up to the book due to the degree of internalization and narrative the written word permits that doesn’t work as well on screen. I appreciated the visualization, but I didn’t feel anything from the movie that wasn’t already explored deeper in the novel. If you love post apocalyptic scenarios (as I do), then go see the movie. If not, this is one you can forget. It will leave you with a bleak and empty feeling, which may not be best for the holidays. Go see a romantic comedy.

After the movie ended, we went to the grocery store, and I felt a similar shock to the one felt by the main character in The Hurt Locker when he stands in a similarly stocked grocery store after leaving Iraq: surrounded by so much plenty right after feeling so much want.

ShofScore: 6/10

– Alex Shofner