'The Road' review

The near future looks believably miserable—but not nearly as gripping as 'Children of Men'

By Matt Pais

Posted November 24, 2009

Metromix

Society has broken down, plants and animals are a distant memory, and humans must find food and shelter if they have any chance of survival. (That many have turned to cannibalism makes the situation even more desperate.) As a man (Viggo Mortensen) dreams about his final days with his wife (Charlize Theron), he looks after his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and assures him that they are the good guys—and they just have to stay away from the bad guys.

The buzz: Many thought Cormac McCarthy's novel to be unfilmable, and the fact that the movie was pushed back from year-end Oscar candidacy in 2008 doesn't bode well. Still, Mortensen is the man (figuratively and literally; his character here is only known as The Man), and it might be nice to get a taste of widespread disaster that's a little less ridiculous than "2012."

The verdict: The apocalypse probably won't have a soundtrack, yet there's a pesky score during every heavy-handed emotional moment in "The Road." Director John Hillcoat ("The Proposition") captures the gray-brown desolation of a world dying along with its citizens, and Mortensen provides a solid foundation when the movie slides into melodrama. (Why is Theron's departure played like a soap opera?) It's too bad the film shies away from brutality and becomes so monotonous, offering not enough emotion or commentary about survival instincts at war with humanity—and the way human behavior at the end of the world isn't so far from the way we are everyday.

Did you know? The Man is happy when he's able to give his son a special treat: a can of Coke. When deprived of food and water and barely clinging to life, is it bad form to request Diet?