Rating of
3/4
"The Road" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/29/12
In an Earth devastated by nuclear war, a father and son travel to the coast to find respite to the seemingly never-ending horrors they are witness to. For "post apocalyptic science fiction", The Road is a far more character driven, ponderous affair than you would expect. It is essentially a story of survival under the most adverse conditions, as a father tries to hold onto his humanity while trying to protect his son and himself from starvation and the degenerate cannibals the majority of the rest of the human race has become. As a result, the innocence of his son comes to act as his conscience, but all this really comes down to is this: Viggo & son are walking down a road, meet bad guys, Viggo threatens them with gun, son cries "No poppa, no! Don't kill him!" and they run away. Again, and again. The acting is excellent, particularly from Mortensen (although he does seem to stipulate in his contract these days that he must be able to show his arse at least once during the running time of every film he appears in) and the desolate world that Hillcoat has created is totally believable. Unfortunately I didn't feel any real connection to the characters and so it felt a bit like a painting with a beautifully rendered background, but nothing going on in the foreground that really grabs your attention.
