Review: The Road

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

There’s been a lot of whispering lately about THE ROAD, the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s award-winning novel, moving to 2009 and out of the 2008 Oscar race. Does it have anything to do with the quality of the movie? Luckily a long-time JoBlo reader named “Dave” was lucky enough to catch a recent test screening in New York City. He was kind enough to write up a little review and pass it along for your reading pleasure. Let’s see what’s up this ROAD…(wow that was a bad pun).

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A couple of days ago I saw THE ROAD at a screening, where the
audience was told that it was near completion but there was still work
to go. There were indeed some sound issues and a few images were
either blurry or discolored, but otherwise I think we saw what is
intended. (Maybe not though, as I read news that it’s getting pushed
back?) What we saw was a very unusual film, one that’s quite dark and
without a central plot… But this movie is about tone and mood and
knowing the main characters, and on those levels it certainly works
and could be an award contender at the end of the year. (If it gets
released, of course.)

The premise of THE ROAD is simple: The world is a barren, ashy
wasteland due to some unknown event (we’re never told it explicitly,
but it’s pretty obvious that WWIII has gone down and most of the Earth
has been destroyed by it). A father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son
(Kodi Smit-McPhee) walk endlessly down a road toward the coast of
Florida, hoping they’ll find ANYTHING that doesn’t resemble the hell
they currently live in… They’re not alone however, and once in a
while they encounter gangs of degenerate scavengers bent on capturing
and eating any living thing they find. Suffice to say, life ain’t a
bowl of cherries for our protagonists…

THE ROAD is a combination of meditative art-house epic (think
Terrence Malick) and creepy horror movie. Somber, thoughtful moments
of father-son bonding are mixed with distressing images that are the
stuff of nightmares… There’s one really eerie sequence where the
father and son wander into a seemingly abandoned house only to
discover that a group of malnourished people are being kept in the
basement, presumably being used as “food” for the house’s owners – who
soon come home. The sequence is so disturbing that every scene after
it has a hint of suspense, making the experience even more unnerving.
There are very few scenes aren’t drenched in foreboding and sadness.

As depressing as it is, the performances by Mortensen and
Smit-McPhee keep THE ROAD from being a total downer. Whenever father
and son happen upon a lucky circumstance (as when they find a hidden
cache of supplies) you feel just as fortunate, and it’s always
uplifting when they manage to smile, even a little. Combined they’re
on-screen about 99% of the time, so their intense performances give
the movie life even when its filled with death. Viggo in particular is
excellent, displaying a frightened, vulnerable side we’ve rarely seen,
but also the stoic hero we’re now used to.

All other actors in the movie show up in glorified cameos, but
they’re all effective. Charlize Theron plays the man’s long-gone wife
in dream sequences, and we see her as a sunny beauty and also as a
suicidal shell of herself; she’s terrific, as usual. Guy Pearce is
solid as a battle-scarred survivor (with a really bad set of teeth)
and an almost unrecognizable Robert Duvall has a great few minutes as
a weary traveler our heroes stumble upon.

I’m not sure of the commercial prospects for this film. I don’t
see it being as big of a success as, say, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
(author Cormac McCarthy wrote both novels), as the material is
probably too grim for most people, even those drawn to the top-shelf
cast. However, like I said, there will almost certainly be an Award
push for Viggo and perhaps director John Hillcoat, so that could raise
its profile a bit.

This hasn’t been a great year for movies (in my opinion), so THE
ROAD easily makes it into my top 5 thus far… In the end, it’s not
quite the masterpiece it intends to be, and I don’t know if I can say
I “enjoyed” it – but it’s unique and engaging and sometimes downright
chilling. Definitely not a typical night at the movies, and that’s
always something to appreciate. I’ll give it a 7/10