Just this month, The Book of Eli promised us that even if there’s only one Bible left in the world, you’ll be able to find an iPod if you persevere hard enough. And traditionally every post-societal-breakdown movie from Mad Max to Doomsday promises that even if markets and ATMs are a thing of the past, you can still have face paint and killer fashion sense. Even Waterworld assured us that even if Earth’s submerged under water and we’re all living in boats, you can still come across a stray tomato plant every now and then.
Then there’s director John Hillcoat’s The Road, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, and starring Viggo Mortensen. There are no tomato plants in The Road. There’s no blue face paint, or infrastructure created from haphazardly assembled scrap metal. There’s just Viggo, his kid, and the dim hope of maybe finding some seeds to eat for dinner.
There’s also Viggo’s gun, loaded with two bullets. Essentially, The Road is two hours of Viggo’s son (Kodi Smit-McPhee, the lead in the upcoming Let Me In) asking his father, “Dad? When are we gonna die?”
The whole situation becomes more bleak when the two are nearly taken captive by a group of cannibals, and Viggo’s forced to use a bullet. That one of the pair is now going to be left behind without the safe “out” of the bullet isn’t lost upon anyone. Luckily, there’s plenty of other ways to die in The Road. Bridges to jump off of, starving people who need to eat you, fatigue, disease…
Adding to Viggo’s defeat is the haunting memory of his wife, who chose to – rather dramatically, and mysteriously – end it all, rather than stick it out with the fam. While his son is more optimistic, Viggo’s gloom pervades the film. Even when they catch a break, he’s too paranoid and downtrodden to enjoy anything more than a day’s happiness. This equates to about 5 minutes of happiness in the whole movie.
There’s just nothing to be enthusiastic about with The Road. But for some reason, I keep thinking about it, a month and a half later. Usually in the midst of a depression, like, “God, if things don’t turn around, it’s gonna be The Road up in this mother.”
Not a personal fan of McCarthy, but for a pessimist, this is probably the closest look at the aftermath of The End we’ll get on film. Where our villains and tormentors aren’t robots, aliens, or religious fanatics, but hunger and human frailty. Case by case basis on whether or not you’ll find that compelling. But personally, this really blew a whole in my whole strategy of if I stockpile astronaut food, train on a bicycle, own a gun, and don’t take crap from robots that I’ll be safe in the apocalypse. Way less fun.
Tags: The Road
