The Road
The Road
R | 25 November 2009 (USA)
The Road Trailers

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there.

Reviews
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
cmyles-07888 The Road is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic drama, based off The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. The film was directed by John Hillcoat. The man (played by Viggo Mortensen) and the boy (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world as they travel on the road to the southern coast, in hopes of warmth and refugee. The mother of the boy, (played by Charlize Theron), deserted the two years after the apocalypse. Those who read the novel know that cannibalism is a huge element within the storyline of The Road, which I think wasn't emphasized enough. The element of cannibalism was significantly downplayed within the film. The only time cannibalism is truly shown in the film is when the boy and the man enter the basement of a house, and find several nude and starving people who were locked up. It is assumed that these people were being held captive as a food source for their captors. Another aspect that played a huge role within the text but wasn't really incorporated in the text was the setting. After reading The Road and before watching the film, I anticipated the setting of the entire film to be dark, grey, bleak, and full of ash. These aspects play a large role in why the journey south was so treacherous. The film did a poor job of showing a post-apocalyptic world in my opinion. The setting of the movie gave me the impression that the weather was constantly cloudy, and that the establishments such as various buildings, stores, and houses were being poorly maintained. There were no places shown within the film that gave off the feeling of being abandoned or burned down, just ignored. The only aspect of this movie that I really enjoyed was the input of voice overs and narration of some scenes. The use of voice overs helped incorporate the "vibe" given off when reading through the pages of McCarthy's writing. Overall, the film did a poor job of trying to bring Cormac McCarthy's writing to life. There were quintessential aspects of the book that made it so enjoyable were left out. The man and son were unrealistically lucky within the film, to the point where the film became stale.(How can a cold, starving man on the brink of death go diving into a freezing sea and walk out like it was nothing?) The actors' performances were subpar at best. And to top the movie off, the only African American within the film robbed the boy and the man, and then was robbed himself. If I had to rate this movie from 1 through 10, 1 being absolutely a piece of garbage and 10 being the best film I've ever seen, I would give this movie 4. The effort was there, but upon further review, not really.
slamnati-jeti One of the best movies i ever seen. Maybe becouse i cancorrelate as father. What would i do in same conditions? Would i choose path of mother or father?? Would i loose hope or would i try to survive to protect my children and how far would i go to survive? why to ask that questions? Becouse this story is very probable!In the movie we neversee what happend and we dont see spetactular explosions, movie tells a human side at catastophic event. There is no "big"speaches in it (like Few good men), jut avarage man struggling to survive. And Viggo did that job excelent!
nilen-51573 I could not connect to this movie because I did not buy the story and the conflicts. There is a great focus on cannibalism and the lack of food, because everything is basically dead. I don't buy that basically everybody is driven to cannibalism. In the real world even in times of great need, the cases of cannibalism is very few. I don't think people give up and end it with suicide that often either. People tend to stick together in groups because that increases the chance of survival. No one in the film seems to be a survival expert in the movie, because I can see food everywhere in the forest.
willrock-88030 About halfway through the movie I'm hoping the kid dies. He's a whiny, stupid and weak character. You don't grow up in that environment and get to be a weak sauce loser like that kid. And there is alllll that ash everywhere and they don't bother to try to wear masks? WTF nope. Nope nope.