The Road

Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron
DVD release: 28 May 2010
Rated: MA 15+

Australian director John Hillcoat made the leap across the Pacific with his debut American feature, The Road. But while the film may be notionally American, there's nothing "Hollywood" about Hillcoat's gritty and disturbing but ultimately engrossing adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name.

The novel has quite a cachet of its own, being widely regarded as one of the author's finest works (indeed, book reviewer William Rycroft has named it as one of the books of the decade in these very online pages). It's a slim book, and as such probably ideal for adaptation into a film, since it doesn't need to be pared down significantly. Fans of the novel will be pleased to learn that Hillcoat's film is very true to the source material in most (though not all) respects, and as such, it should translate well.

Those who have followed Hillcoat's work over the years (he's not been exactly prolific in his output) will appreciate that he has a particular style, that's carried through from his debut feature Ghosts... of the Civil Dead to his career-defining Aussie Western, The Proposition. That style is an unflinching, even grim, approach to the material, which in itself tends to be very serious.

That style continues here, with Hillcoat taking things even further than he did in The Proposition; washing out the colour palette and bathing just about every scene in a dull patina of grays. Of course, that also suits the material to a tee. Part of the fabric of the film, which takes place in a post-calamity (I baulk at the over-used 'post-apocalyptic') world in which a disaster has befallen at least part of the planet. While the film hints at what that disaster is, it never expresses it in forthright terms. The continually overcast skies are an apparent result of the calamity and are mentioned in the film specifically, hence the dull look employed by Hillcoat.

As the title suggests, The Road is essentially a 'road movie'. It follows the journey of an unnamed man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) across a devastated America. The man has a fairly vague plan - head south to the sea. There, he's heard, are groups of people who are 'normal' - or at least, as normal as they can be in the circumstances. The journey is particularly hazardous as not only has law and order broken down completely, but cannibalism is rife as resources quickly dwindle and food becomes scarce.

The film is basically a two-hander between the man and his son. The only other characters of note are people they meet along the way, including an old man (Robert Duvall), a veteran (Guy Pearce) and a thief (Michael Kenneth Williams). There's one exception to that: the woman (Charlize Theron), who seems to be the man's wife and the boy's mother, and whose appearances in the film are limited to flashbacks of times before the pair begin their epic journey.

A little like the final scene in A Serious Man, the ending here arguably raises more questions than it answers. On one level, it seems to be a logical conclusion to the cross-country trek; but the film makes the point that things are often not as they appear. Is there something more to be read into the ending? I personally think there could well be, but I'll leave that to your own judgment.

Given the film's structure, the acting has to be spot-on, because it's the relationship between the man and the boy that defines the film. Thankfully, we're not let down, with Viggo Mortensen and young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee delivering in spades. The emotional journey between the two is just as - if not more - important to the story than their physical journey. In the end, I doubt there will be a dry eye as it reaches its quietly shattering conclusion.

Because the two central characters occupy so much screen time, it's a bit difficult for the other actors to get a look in. The strange thing is that when they do appear, they tend to make a real impression, as we see so much of the man and the boy. All the supporting cast members are terrific, although I would single out Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron for special mention.

It's fair to say The Road is not an easy film. Certainly, it's no expendable popcorn flick - it's a rugged experience that demands both attention and commitment from its audience. That said, if you're prepared to give yourself over to it, there are ample rewards here.

David Edwards