Take a bleak and brilliant 'Road'...
4 stars (out of 5)
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael K. Williams, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron
Rating: (R16)
The most interesting thing about The Road is whether the film has the visual goods to paint the creeping dread staining every page of Cormac McCarthy's book.
The good news is that it succeeds in spades, but the bad news, if you judge films as escapist entertainment, is that it's uncompromisingly bleak.
In a quest to reach the coast he hopes will be cleansed of the ash cloaking everything, a father (Viggo Mortensen) does what he can to keep himself and his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) alive. It's one thing defending yourself against cannibalistic opportunists, it's quite another trying to define "good", when bad is pretty much the only way to survive.
Mortensen brilliantly executes another feat of complete character immersion but, unusually for him, he is upstaged by his young Australian partner, Kodi Smit-McPhee. Capturing the complete essence of youthful naivety, Smit-McPhee's performance constantly asks the question: what would you do?
This is a world where signs of life are few, and the remaining scraps of humanity are profoundly ill equipped to deal with the harsh new climate. Every horrendous detail of post-apocalyptic survival is laid bare as you wince at the depravity that has become humankind.
The meticulously captured images of carnage, stripped of almost any warm colours, make The Road an extremely unpleasant but quite enthralling world to visit.
Best thing: The set design. Whoever thought there could be beauty in a post apocalyptic setting?
Worst thing: The dream-flash back sequences. They add nothing to McCarthy's original vision.
See it with: A cave-dwelling survivalist.
- Mark Orton
