Considering the tremendous success of the last silver-screen adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country for Old Men, it’s no wonder studio giants The Weinstein Company seized the distribution rights for a movie version of the author’s latest Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Road.
The eponymous film, the big-budget debut of Aussie director John Hillcoat, centers on an ailing but tenacious middle-aged man (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son, some years after an unspecified cataclysm that has left the earth bleak and barren, extinguishing almost all human life in a maelstrom of earthquakes and flames. Through a series of flashbacks, we get a glimpse of the man’s idyllic pre-disaster existence, lounging on grassy knolls with his beautiful wife before her later-depicted anomic suicide — a fleeting image of warmth and light in an otherwise grim picture of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The Road is indeed a harrowing tale of survival; the father-son pair encounters various foes on their southward journey in search of warmer climates. The few remaining inhabitants of this desolate terrain have resorted to ruthless methods of perseverance. Asserting that they must constantly protect themselves against these “bad guys,” the film’s cynical patriarch protagonist exhorts constant vigilance, greeting every human contact with hostility and pitilessness, despite his son’s pleas to grant the other wayfarers mercy. Though the young boy remains charitable and compassionate, with a naïve faith in the goodness of mankind, his father, disillusioned by the horrors of catastrophe, knows that he must trust no one in order to ensure his (and more importantly, his son’s) survival. Along their odyssey, the duo has to hide from the various roaming bands of cannibals, including a household keeping a stock of human prey in an underground cellar, gradually lopping off limbs to provide themselves sustenance.
Visually, the film is breathtaking; scenes depicting the somber, empty landscape are devastatingly exquisite, rendered all the more poignant by Bad Seeds frontman Nick Cave’s hauntingly poetic soundtrack. Where the film falls flat, though, is its banal and unconvincing attempt at expressing sentiment. Mortensen and Theron, typical Hollywood power players, nevertheless fail to deliver compelling performances. Consequently, much of the film drags on. Though occasionally quite touching, it ultimately struggles to pack the emotional punch of McCarthy’s original prose.
3.5 stars Directed by: John Hillcoat Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron Rated R, 119 min.
