Movie Review: 'The Road'

The Road (2009)

John Hillcoat's The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, was supposed to be released around this time last year, but mysteriously had its release date changed to October of this year, then yet again to its present release date of the 25th. This many changes tends not to be a good omen for a film, and with The Road, it proves true once again.

After a terrible disaster, the world lies in ruin. Few people are left alive including a Man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Together they wander this post-apocalyptic world in search of food as they head to the ocean. On their journey, they must avoid the dangers that this new world brings, including thieves and cannibals, many of whom have formed gangs. Meanwhile, through dreams/flashbacks, we are told of what life was like at the onset of the disaster.

That's the set up of what could have been a fascinating film, because so much could be done with such a premise. Unfortunately, the writer chose not to do anything with that premise and instead has his characters just wandering around towards the ocean, hoping that they will find food. The screenplay gives them very little to do otherwise.

The screenplay itself feels like it was very lazily written, as if much of the dialogue was something that the actors could have just ad-libbed on their own. It gives the father and son very few substantial conversations, but never feels the need to develop them any further. For example, near the end of the film, a question arises as to whether or not the father and his son are still truly "good guys" as opposed to the "bad guys" who do all of the terrible actions like thieving and cannibalism.

However, the subject is dropped very shortly thereafter. This gives the feeling as though the screenwriter, Joe Penhall, was trying to throw in questions of morality just for the heck of it. The only scene that feels like any thought went into it at all involves an old man (Robert Duvall) that the main characters run into. There is a short conversation here between Mortensen and Duvall that actually feels like there is some substance to it, and not just another casual conversation like the ones between the father and son.

As I mentioned, this film is based off the novel by Cormac McCarthy, who recently had his No Country For Old Men adapted into another disappointing film. I've never read either of these novels, so I can't say whether the adaptation was well done, but it is possible that McCarthy's novels are just not that good, or it could simply be that something is being lost in adapting them from a novel into a screenplay, which tends to happen a lot.

Throughout the film, we are given these strange little flashbacks showing us the very beginning of the disaster (which most likely involved nuclear weapons from the description of a bright flash), though we don't get to see very much. These progress very slightly into showing us the man, his wife (Charlize Theron), and their son trying to survive in their house. However, these flashbacks don't get very far in explaining the wife's actions, making them feel random, especially during the flashback that explains why she is not with the father and son.

These flashbacks could have been a great tool for the writer to use to deeply explore these characters and give them life, which they desperately needed due to their almost complete lack of development. They could have been used to tell us so much more about the wife's mysterious actions, the father's choice to make for the ocean, as well as showing us how society got to the point where we find it at the beginning of the film.

There's a particularly annoying part in the middle of the film that leaves a big question of character motivation. The father and son have found a great stockpile of food, yet the father feels it is not safe. The son wants to stay, but the father feels it would be best to make for the ocean for some reason. Who knows what he hopes to find there. It's one of the unresolved mysteries bogging down the film. When they do reach the ocean, I was half expecting to see the Statue of Liberty sticking out of the sand. That would have been a nice touch. 2/4 stars.

Now playing in select theaters. Coming soon to Richmond.

Now playing in theaters: Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Planet 51, A Christmas Carol, Pirate Radio, The Box, 2012