By Susan Granger - In John Hillcoat’s powerful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s grim Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a boy and his father make their way on foot across the wet, wretched, ash-laden wasteland of a post-apocalyptic United States, scavenging food and fuel, seeking shelter and taking precautions for safety. No one knows what caused the cataclysm 10 years earlier; one day there was a flash of light, then the terrain became plagued by continuing earthquakes and fires. Some survivors have banded together as cannibals, preying on the vulnerable; in desperation, others go it alone for as long as they can.
The innocent, 11 year-old boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and his fiercely protective father (Viggo Mortensen) are trudging southward through the bitter cold towards the warmth of the coastline. As the resourceful father puts it, they’re “the good guys,” carrying “the fire” deep inside them, along with flashback memories of the boy’s mother (Charlize Theron) who chose to commit suicide. In the course of their mythic, meandering journey, they have several encounters, some terrifying, like being robbed by a thief (Michael K. Williams), and some edifying, like discovering an underground cache of canned food and, in an abandoned mall vending machine, the one last can of Coca-Cola, which amazes the boy with its still-fizzy sweetness. But the most memorable episode revolves around the boy’s empathy for a wandering, blind old codger (Robert Duvall) with whom they spend a philosophical evening by a campfire, along with the uplifting discovery of a veteran (Guy Pearce), his wife (Molly Parker), their children and a dog.
Working with screenwriter Joe Penhall, cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe and production designer Chris Kennedy, Hillcoat (“The Proposition”) opts for barren realism, indelible visual imagery and low-key anguish. There’s palpable chemistry between Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”) and Aussie newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee, solidifying the believability of their relationship, along with the lad’s remarkable resemblance to Charlize Theron. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Road” is a haunting, ominous, evocative 8, a cautionary, cryptic allegory about the indomitable human hope for survival, even in the face of unfathomable horror.
Susan Granger © 2009 “The Road” (Dimension Films)
