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The Road Starring Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Kodi Smit-McPhee Screenplay by Joe Penhall Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy Directed by John Hillcoat website: http://www.theroad-movie.com/

IN SHORT: Depending on your age and relationship status either a masculine tearjerker or a flat out bore. [Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language. 113 minutes]

The Woman (Charlize Theron) and The Man (Viggo Mortensen) produce The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is still in single digits as the world goes to hell for reasons never revealed in director John Hillcoat's The Road. It's important that we give props to the director because everyone else and their "I prefer to read what Oprah reads" friends will automatically i.d. the film as made from Cormac McCarthy's novel. McCarthy previously wrote No Country For Old Men, whose adaptation garnered an Oscar for the Coen brothers. That being said, we prefer to begin this way . . .

"My gramma died" said the three year old girl, who didn't understand the concept  of great-gramma, to her cousin Cranky, grandson of the deceased.

"I know, but it's just her body that died"  Cranky replied. "So I want you to do something for me. I want you to remember the best time you ever had with your grandma and think really hard so that you remember it, always."

Her eyes closed and her face scrunched up in the adorable way that three year old faces scrunch when they really, really, really think hard about doing something. And when the memory was appropriately burned into memory, she opened her eyes. She smiled a big smile. The girl's grandmother, standing off to the side, nearly cried. . . .

If you catch the emotional drift we're trying to put forth here you are perfectly set to view The Road, a drama placing a father and son in the midst of some apocalyptic calamity. While The Man can lapse into memories of his wife, and the life they had in the years before calamity came, The Boy can only hold on to his father; his protector who will always be there to protect him. Until he is not.

The pair follow a road, heading South in what is left of the country. They are wary of bands of cannibals and marauders that kill and steal and eat, not necessarily in that order, so as to stay alive in a world without animals for meat or vital farmland to yield grain. Along the way they run across, sometimes pairing with and sometimes facing off against generic characters named The Old Man (Robert Duvall), and The Thief (Michael Kenneth Williams). Duvall, of course, can make any character shine under layers of grime and emotional garbage that said character bears and Williams gets to deliver both danger and pathos all wrapped up in one guy. A character called The Veteran (Guy Pearce) is probably better defined in the book but we have this thing about not giving away the ending of a film so we can't go into any gripe about the name. We'll just remind y'all that we don't make comparisons to the book and ignore the character name as seen in our press notes.

If you have not reached the age beyond which you understand the emotional connection between parent and child, you will be bored silly by The Road. If you are of the proper age, it may make you weep. We, being of the proper age but childless, fell somewhere in the middle.

Movie wise, The Road is a sparse piece of film making. There is drama and there are emotional punches to the gut and t here is so much grime that you have to think twice to identify certain famous actors. That you could be distracted enough to do that is a negative. Add that to the aforementioned warnings and you'll know if The Road is for you. We're going to split the baby.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The Road, he would have paid . . .

$5.00

Please pay close attention to the demographic warnings above. If you are outside of said age/ parenting groups, you may be bored silly . . . film students excepted, of course.

	Click to buy films by John Hillcoat
	Click to buy films starring Charlize Theron
	Click to buy films starring Viggo Mortensen
	Click to buy films starring Robert Duvall
	Click to buy books by Cormack McCarthy