The Road

This road is a highway to hell

By: Mark Salisbury

Tuesday September 08 2009 11:12:00 am

Director

John Hillcoat

Starring

Viggo Mortenson , Kodi Smit-McPhee , Charleze Theron

Studio

Dimension

Genre

Drama , Science Fiction

Movie Rating:

The Pitch: In a catastrophe-ravaged post-apocalyptic US, a Man (Viggo Mortensen) and a ten-year-old Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) trudge wearily along scorched highways and through desolate countryside, foraging for food and shelter, heading south towards the ocean, ever watchful for gangs of gun-totting cannibals trawling the same roads on the look out for something to eat.

High points: Mortensen’s convincingly raw performance, a haunted, desperate father driven on by his undying love for his son, and the film’s chillingly desolate and wasted landscape of skeletal trees, endless rain, and grey skies clogged with smoke and raging firestorms.

Low points: Unrelentingly grim, this harrowing film is devoid of anything that could be remotely considered feel good.

Final thoughts: A heartbreaking and powerful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this might just be a tad too grueling and bleak for everyone’s liking, but it’s a Road that’s definitely well worth traveling.

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Comments

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on November 30, 2009

..."look out" should be one word; "feel good" should be hyphenated; and for your own sake, lose the last line. If Cormac McCarthcy read this, he'd probably mail you a dead rodent.

note to site administrator

on November 24, 2009

following up on the first comment: Really? Three weeks later, and you can't correct the two items he mentions. Really? Have you no shame, man? Fix it.

on November 24, 2009

Terrible review. Not even worth reading, but it was so short that I got through it before I came to the conclusion that it was bad, anyways.

shame

on November 1, 2009

A review can't have any credibility when no one has even taken the time for a quick spell check. It is gun-toting, (not 'totting' and needs to be hyphenated) and is a tired phrase to begin with, plus your sidebar spells Charlize Theron's name incorrectly. Not to mention it is barely a few sentences long. All that said, it is clear why Premiere has been relegated to the place it has. Shame because it once was so mighty and wonderful to read.