| The Road | |
 The last Cormac McCarthy book to grace the big screen was No Country for Old Men, which was epically adapted by the Coen brothers. So expectation was high for this bleak tale of post-apocalyptic woe.The premise is fantastically simple. Viggo Mortenson plays an unnamed father who has survived a nuclear holocaust along with his wife and son. The narrative intertwines the story of how the family became split, how humanity 'exists' after the holocaust, and what the continued struggle for life in such impossible circumstances does to the father. The most intriguing arc of the tale is that of the father, whose obsessive protectiveness of his son begins as a seemingly natural reaction to these most perilous of circumstances but gradually warp and twist into something altogether darker. The transition is facilitated by a series of fleeting, by horrifically frightening, encounters with the shards of humanity that remain on the earth; and emphasised in stark contrast to the naive innocence with which the son views both their survival and the nature of those surviving around them. Director John Hillcoat is a pretty good choice to helm the film, having directed The Proposition he's entirely prepared for bleakness (though perhaps he would've suited No Country better: not that we'd change a thing about that). Regardless, he's certainly brought something to the tale, which has some severe difficulties to convert from the book. For starters, in the book no-one can see much further than a few feet ahead of them. A hazy fog envelops reader and character alike as they struggle to comprehend the tragedy that surrounds them, (a literary comparison to Blindness, also adapted recently springs to mind). In the film this is obviously almost impossible, or at least cinematic suicide. So cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe wipes out the landscape with a grey blanked of ash that covers everything except for the spindly skeletons of crumbling dead trees, all merely pillars of ash since the end of the world.  This serves more than adequately to create the requisite bleakness, an is supplemented brilliantly by a soundscape that alternates between deafening silence and the ominous cracks of falling timber, storms and, if the characters are really unlucky, gunfire. Altogether, this is a stark film which hits home with a powerful punch. Viggo Mortensen is a safe pair of hands for the tormented father (though I suspect if he'd pushed to reach the extremes this could've been even better) and appearances from an ever-superb Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce bring a little magic to the proceedings. It's dark, clever, atmospheric and deeply disturbing, another great McCarthy adaptation. Rating: **** Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Molly Parker, Michael K. Williams Director: John Hillcoat Run time: 111 mins Certificate: UK 15 | US R Release date: 8th January 2010 Review by Michael Edwards The obvious recommendation here is No Country for Old Men, but for some more surprising bleakness you could also try out Where the Wild Things Are. |
