Based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning apocalyptic novel, John Hillcoat's film (adapted by Joe Penhall) follows a man (Viggo Mortensen) haunted by the past as he faces a bleak future with his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in a dying world.
Plot of The Road
In the years following a global disaster, most of civilization has been destroyed and America has descended into an animal-like existence. Few people have survived, and those that have are resorting to robbery, murder, and in the worst cases, cannibalism.
The man (who is never named) is travelling across the country with his young son, desperate to reach the coast and a dream of salvation that may or may not exist. Pushing their few belongings in a shopping cart, their tattered and worn appearance could easily mistake them for homeless people in any urban area (very symbolic indeed). The despair they suffer is palpable.
Over the course of their bleak journey they encounter violent gangs, vicious cannibals, solitary journeymen, and more, all desperately searching for their next meal and some sort of safety. All the while, the man struggles to instill some sort of hope for his son, even though hope is mostly a thing of the past.
The Road is a Difficult Film to Watch
The Road asks difficult questions of its audience. Would you be able to put a gun to your child's head in order to save him from a fate worse than death? How, in the face of such horror does anyone manage to remain one of the "good guys"? Why live another day when there is nothing to live for? When is just surviving enough? And when is it too much?
Don't expect any easy answers.
Cast of Characters in The Road
This may be the film that defines Viggo Mortensen's career. As a father trying to save his son, Mortensen delivers a gripping performance. Smit-McPhee is also a real find, playing a frightened child in a dead world who has known no other reality. His hope, and the chemistry he shares with Mortensen are what keep this film from going over the edge into complete darkness.
Charlize Theron adds the film's only other brief moments of light with a powerful performance, shown in flashbacks, as the man's wife. Though her screen time is brief, her transition from a sunny, well-adjusted wife, to a woman filled with despair is riveting in its intensity.
One-scene roles from a nearly unrecognizable Robert Duvall, and one from Guy Pearce, among others, add layers of character that keep the audience on its toes, always guessing.
Make no mistake: The Road is a bleak film, stripped of all color and joy. There is no happiness to be found, and whether or not there is salvation is up for debate. Unlike in its Armageddon-style counterpart 2012, watching the world die in The Road is not exciting or entertaining in any way. It is horrific, relentlessly grim, and one of the most depressing films audiences are likely to see all year. It is also one of the best.
- The Road
- Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce
- Directed by: John Hillcoat
- Written by: Cormac McCarthy (novel), Joe Penhall (screenplay)
- Runtime: 112 mins
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