Review: The Road

The Road Not Taken

Leave it to Hollywood to continue their duality of films in the marketplace. It seems like there's always going to be one film out about a particular subject matter, and then not too long after that there's another one. Take 1997, for instance, when Dante's Peak was followed shortly after by Volcano. The following year saw a back-to-back double feature of Deep Impact and Armageddon. Now this year we have another one, another in the realm of fighting global disaster. There is this film and Roland Emmerich's schlock-tastic 2012. Between the two, one definitely has a bigger budget, one definitely has better acting, but only one is comfortable enough to sit through and waste a few hours of your life. Sadly, it isn't this one.

Based on the well renowned book by Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men), this is another tale of a close knit group of people surviving a planet that has been torn apart by a global apocalypse. The specific event is never shown, but it has left the face of the Earth a barren, gray toned wasteland with bleak skies and raging fires. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee star as a father and son trekking their way to the coast, constantly trying to avoid the elements, staggering starvation and aggressive, cannibalistic groups of surviving humans. Charlize Theron pops up in flashbacks as Mortensen's wife before he left home.

I am thoroughly convinced that Mortensen is incapable of giving a bad performance. Every character he takes on has such an emotional well that he mines to perfection, no matter how large or small the part. Here is no exception, and he gives a tender and complex performance of a man not on a definite mission, but only to make sure his son stays alive. From Mortensen, he remains a man that isn't completely figured out, but we totally buy he strength and sensibility. McPhee doesn't soar in every scene he's in, but shows that he's capable of delivering an emotional side. Also, the makeup and cinematography are pretty good.

And that is about the extent of the praise I can give this film. The main fault of the film is that throughout all it's fantastically bleak looking visuals, there's not too much in the story that convinces you to stay through it. Director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Joe Penhall offer some great touches here and there, with the direction offering an interesting angle and the screenplay giving some nice conversational dialogue, but the whole thing never goes anywhere. It's very meandering and finally leads into a misanthropic mess. It looks good on the surface, but underneath it all, there isn't much as these two characters go from place to place with not much significance in between.

The one other major problem is related to the acting, and that is the connection between Mortensen and McPhee is never felt to the extreme that the film needs. The two are good in their own right, but the bond between father and son in extreme situations never pulls us into the story convincingly. Then, when an emotional peak is met at the end, it feels cheap and contrived rather than feeling touching. That lack of a connection is also felt between Mortensen and Theron, making a handful of those scenes feel like filler for an emotional reveal that is never felt. Robert Duvall shows up late in the film for a brief role as a blind man who crosses their path, but he feels wasted and more like an opportunity to show off the makeup budget.

I don't rely on the adage that one good performance can save an entire film (see my review for The Reader to reaffirm that). Despite the best efforts that Mortensen tries to put on the screen, the rest just doesn't hold up. The direction feels aimless and allows the film to become quite long winded, and the severe lack of emotional connections between the characters is the main reason why the film doesn't succeed. It's strange for me recommend a Roland Emmerich film with a phoned-in cast over one more ambitious and starring Viggo Mortensen. But I guess there's a first time for everything, a phrase that Hollywood hasn't heard in quite some time. **1/2 / ****; GRADE: C+