CINEMA: The Road

A word of warning to anyone who has not read the Cormac McCarthy novel this film is adapted from; it is not an easy read and this is no easy ride.

In fact, it is one of the bleakest, blackest tales you could ever encounter, yet it ultimately carries a message of hope that illuminates the darkness.

In an unspecified future, after an equally unspecified worldwide disaster, a young couple look after their son. The Man (Viggo Mortensen) sees the boy’s very existence as the only impetus the couple need in order to push on, but for the Woman (Charlize Theron) every glance at him increases her sense of dread and despair. She curses herself for bringing him into such a hopeless world and can see no happy ending to their story. One day she walks out into a storm and never comes back. Now it is up to the Man to look after the Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee); to lead him away from home; to keep him fed and watered, and to shield him from the many dangers they must face as they trek across a devastated America in order to reach the coast.

However, this is unlike any other American road movie you’ve ever seen. Here, there are no encounters with ‘quaint’ characters, instead there are brief, barbaric clashes with other souls also intent on survival, but with no moral qualms about how to achieve it. There are no overnight stays in charming towns but the frantic pillaging of ancient food stores or vending machines for the last can of Coke on the planet. In this nightmare future world everything is a danger and the man and his son live in a constant state of fear.

Director John Hillcoat imbues the film with a stillness and desolation that drips through the all-encompassing grey landscape like one of those leaden rains that depress the spirit and the soul. With the colour leeched out of everything and the landscape depicted as barren and void of life, it is up to the actors to keep our interest in the story alive. There is little dialogue and so every word that is actually uttered counts.

Viggo Mortensen has long been the master of the meaningful look that can convey complex emotional concepts and his sense of internal strength comes to the fore here in a performance that is beautifully nuanced and measured. Yet matching him for emotional integrity is young Kodi Smit-McPhee who plays the Boy with a keen, questioning mind and a hunger for companionship that cannot be quenched by his father’s misgivings and doubts about every stranger they cross paths with.

It is a measure of the film’s power that although the viewer is inevitably affected by its sombre tone, its final message of potential hope and even redemption is not lost in the all-pervading gloom and you are left with a strong desire to see the Boy make it through to a better future.

The Road throws down a quality benchmark for other literary movies out this year (including The Lovely Bones), so let’s hope they can match it for integrity and depth.