The Road

A post apocalyptic movie of the highest quality drenched in the murkiest atmosphere and wrapped in the darkness of grey fumes evaporating from a dying planet. We don’t know why exactly, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is survival. To eat and not get eaten. Viggo Mortensen is at his best and his little side-kick Kodi Smith-McPhee plays a great supporting role. These two under the firm direction of John Hillcoat push the dolly forward at a slow and contemplative tempo towards an ending which is not exactly impressive, but fairly logical. And that’s about it. (19/03/2010)

The most catastrophic commercial for Coca-Cola. McCarthy’s The Road stands on atmosphere, and so it was extremely important that no one scene should stick out, like in the book, so that a month later you have no memory of anything specific that happened, only of the atmosphere of cruel despair, ruin; a world where trusting your nearest and dearest is a synonym for criminal naivety. A memory of the atmosphere that gets under your skin, an atmosphere that will stay with you long after you leave the movie theatre. All it takes is somebody coughing on the bus, the sight of a discarded beer can and there you are again - up to your ears in depression. I don’t want to pretend that this is flawless. It isn’t. I could find quite a lot of things to criticize here, but everything fades in the shade of THAT atmosphere and the very end, where you find out straight away who has what perspective of the world (you know: is the glass half-full or half empty?). That dulls the edges of any of its negative aspects. Mainly that it’s fragmentary and everything else that the book suffers from. Yes, you heard me right, although I really like The Road, I don’t rate it among McCarthy’s top works. It isn’t even his most atmospheric works. P.S.: But this is one of those pointless adaptations. It’s an illustration, one to one scale, nothing more. I really had expected the director to cut deeper and defy the “canon" of the book, while still remaining faithful to it. Here, everything is down to the book, and nothing comes “out of Hillcoat". That’s why I give it four. (15/01/2010)

The Road is a melancholic, beautiful movie involving a slowly and sensitively narrated story of two defenseless characters traveling in a world without humanity. It is a world in which I didn’t want to leave them alone and wanted to protect them. Viggo Mortensen is great and Robert Duvall is phenomenal. The film offers one hellishly chilling scene and a nice, ubiquitous piano motif. So far, The Road is the second candidate (after Shutter Island) for my top 10 movies of this year. (02/05/2010)

Uncompromising with every step, a film that doesn't hold back and can be quite a solid punch for the viewer. Mortensen is very believable and the production design is excellent. A bit slow-paced and, for my taste, lacking in plot twists, but still satisfying. Some scenes are very chilling. (26/06/2010)

For most of the runtime I had decided on a 100% rating, but the last few minutes belong to a completely different film. When it comes to the portrayal of a post-apocalyptic future, The Road leaves all the modern competition way behind. Only the old British film Threads can be compared in terms of the intensity of the despair and depression. The Road is a strong argument for those who claim that I Am Legend and Carriers are not particularly good films. 9/10 (13/01/2010)