A Strenuous Journey Down The Road

Strenuous is an apt word to describe the journey that the main characters in the film go through. It is also a proper word to describe the film itself. The film is an absorbing journey into a post apocalyptic world, but it’s also a frustrating piece of filmmaking that never quite reaches the level of greatness.

The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, stars Viggo Mortensen as a nameless man who wonders around a post apocalyptic America with his son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. The two journey toward the coast in hope of some type of salvation. Along the way they encounter a group of outlaws who resort to cannibalism to survive. In this world you can’t trust anyone. Mortensen clings to the past through flashbacks which show his life with his wife, Charlize Theron.

What I like about the film is the dark, dour environment that the director, John Hillcoat, has created. I appreciate that we don’t get to see what causes this apocalyptic world. The only hint we get is the ominous glow of fire coming through the windows in the flashback scenes. This is a bleak world of monochrome. Must credit the film’s cinematographer, Javier Aguirresarobe. Hillcoat is good at creating dirty environments on screen. Just watch his 2005 film, The Proposition. In that film you literally feel the slime on the characters and environment.

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee are both good in the film. Mortensen is an actor who always fully immerses himself into each film role, and he does that here to great effect. Smit-McPhee does get a little annoying with his dialogue. I got tired of him saying papa. I attribute this weakness to the script by Joe Penhall. Robert Duvall makes a great cameo appearance. Duvall really nails the scenes he is in.

In a film about a world with no humanity, I could have used more of that. I’m not asking for sentimentality, what I wanted was a connection to make me care about these characters. The big emotional moments in the film didn’t work for me at all. The film has to rely on the score by  Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to convey what the viewer should be feeling. I found the score really distracting.

While the film keeps a pretty dark tone throughout, it does falters at the end. There is a deus ex machina of hope that comes at the end that rang false to me. The first half of the film intensely held my interest but halfway through I went from active participant to passive observer.