Running time: 111 minutes (1hour51minutes)
In a post-apocalyptic America in the not so distant future, when humanity has been pushed to the best and worst of its existence; a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel south hoping for salvation. With just a trolley of scavenged belongings, the clothes they are wearing and a pistol with two shells, reserved for if the time comes when they can no longer carry on. The road on which they travel is treacherous, prowled by lawless cannibals, forcing the father and son to keep moving south in their unrelenting fight for survival.
The chemistry between Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee is nothing like I have ever seen before, the two are truly something to behold. Viggo holds the story together acting with sentiment and wiseness beyond his years, as demonstrated in Lord of the Rings, he exudes raw emotion in this severely underrated performance. And for an actor of such a young age, thirteen to be precise, Kodi demonstrates great maturity and understanding of the role, I wouldn't be surprised if we will be seeing him again in the near future.
Musically, The Far Road and The Mother distinctly stick out in my mind for being particularly poignant and reminding me of a beckoning call from home, composed and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
Enter: trailer
Veteran actor, Robert Duvall, must also be applauded for his portrayal of the destitute 'old man' travelling along the road, whom the pair cautiously approach before determining he is no threat. As well as this, he has one of the greatest lines of the film, displayed with a hyper-linked video of the scene at the top of the page.
A puzzle for some is why Cormac McCarthy unconventionally chose not to give any of the characters a name in The Road. While there are numerous theories as to why this is, I personally believe that in this harrowing tale characters a person's actions communicates who he or she is. Making their names inconsequential and unnecessary, because these people do not need identities, they could be anyone, the everyman/woman characters
"All I know is the child is my warrant, and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke," man. Turning Cormac McCarthy's beautiful literature must have been no easy task for director John Hillcoat, but it's recreated gloriously. The sets resembles the literary descriptions in the book and despite the story being so far beyond our physical comprehension, there is a genuine sense of reality, unlike other films where it's quite easily to alienate an audience. While I wouldn't say that this is an everyday watch, due to it being a little melancholic, I'd argue it's definitely a must see.
Rating: Not a-so bad
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