A grim future lies in store if you go and see John Hillcoat’s take on The Road, set after a mysterious incident has wiped out most of the human race
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New Film Review: The Road (15)
By Kim FrancisJanuary 13, 2010
Stars Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce
Former music video director John Hillcoat has crafted a startling post-apocalyptic vision in The Road, only his fourth feature-length project in 21 years.
Given his scant back catalogue, it is astonishing that The Road is as accomplished, as subtle and as genuinely moving as it is.
The year is some time in the future. Viggo Mortensen is a man beaten down by not only whatever incident has occurred to bring about the end of the world as we know it but also by events in his personal life. Alongside him is the one thing left that means anything to him – his son.
The pair must fight to survive, evading gangs of cannibalistic bandits while, at the same time, foraging for food and seeking shelter.
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Heading south in search of warmer climes, hope drives them on but, as they near their destination, the father’s health deteriorates.
While the boy clings eagerly to both hope and humanity, his capacity to trust ultimately brings him a ray of light amid the bleakness.
The Road is an affecting and austere portrait of a nightmarish future landscape that is made all the more downbeat in its refusal to explain the events that have led to this barren, ashen, burnt-out world.
Set in what seems to be the near future, it takes on a grittily realistic feel with a dour tone that makes the film's events all the more palpable, powerful and shocking.
For much of the film, there is little in the way of action and, in this way, Hillcoat effectively conveys a sense of futility, hopelessness and aimlessness.
The Road is a largely joyless journey for both viewer and character. However, key moments stand out against the gloom: the shared moments of ecstasy when father and son discover an underground bunker stuffed with food, their first encounter with a ‘good guy’ (Eli, played by Robert Duvall) and the warmth they extend to him and also the occasion when they have a crisis of conscience and return to show kindness to the man who robs them.
These flashes of humanity shine brightly against an otherwise pitiful depiction of a human race that is mostly descended into feral behaviour and moral indecency.
Mortensen, completely and heart-rendingly, inhabits a character whose love for his son stops him from slipping into total despair and losing his own remaining shreds of humanity.
Washed-out scenes of Mortensen’s character’s present are juxtaposed with colourful memories from his past; of a life shared with his beautiful wife (Charlize Theron).
As the film progresses, so his recollections become more vivid and the contrast between past and present more apparent until eventually the memories are as stark a contrast to his present reality as they can be and he all but gives up.
Hillcoat’s film is a harsh and unflinching depiction of an all-too believable dystopian future and is, unequivocally, required viewing.
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