The Road

Having directed the 2005 Western-styled Australian drama The Proposition, director John Hilcoat is no stranger to expressing a dark, dystopian portrait of ragtag renegade life. In The Road, he brings a similar unflinching eye and knack for visually elegant devestation to an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel. Viggo Mortensen gives a riveting and raw performance as the unnamed "Man" who travels a desolate post-apocalyptic Earth in search of food and clothing along with his young son, "The Boy" (relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee in a wise beyond his years breakthrough role). The plot is slim yet captivating. It encompasses a series of episodic encounters of increasing intensity in which father and son combat their inner demons as well as very real, devolving human cannibals who search the road for fresh prey. The ensemble includes exceptional work by a number of actors in small roles, including Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Molly Parker, Michael K. Williams, Garret Dillahunt, and Charlize Theron (as the family's deceased matriarch seen only in flashbacks).

The film is not a complete home run. It relies on generous, patient viewership and an openness to the opaque narrative. What is undeniable though is that the film builds itself beautifully into a collection of moments, some heartbreaking (the small joy of a post-apocalyptic Coca Cola), some inspiring ("The Boy" and his generous care for a lonely old traveler), some horrifying (Do you really want to know what's in a cannibal's basement?). There are sequences here that are truly unforgettable even if they fall very calmly into a lull of shifting, road tripping minimalism. The big picture is one of striking beauty and gripping intensity. It is a very brutal and unforgiving plunge into a not so unbelievable darkness which despite its distance from a modern society seems to call attention to a vile underside all too present even in the now. Still, McCarthy's story and Hilcoat's film hint also at a journey, one in which the peril faced along the road leads to a redemption (perhaps divine?) which serves as saving grace.

Grade: A-