First 'No Country For Old Men,' ... now 'The Road'
Chris Moskaly
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: Reviews
The father and son have nothing but a push buggy to carry what few resources they have, and as they encounter a series of desperate thieves, and even a gang of cannibals, we soon realize that beyond the common nature of parental guardianship and child obedience, the two protagonists are more than just father and son; they are each other's world entirely, and if something were to happen to either one of them, the other would be just as well off dead.
It's become somewhat of a trend for end-of-the-world/survival sagas to rely on one man to carry most, if not all, of the film's weight, and even when the overall payoff wasn't so good, Will Smith ("I Am Legend") and Tom Hanks ("Cast Away") both managed to provide excellent leadership in the past.
Mortensen may be getting a little help from pre-teen McPhee along the way, but bringing out all the potential in the film's narrative is ultimately in Mortensen's hands. Whether it be pointing a gun at someone he deems threatening, or watching his 10-year old son taste Coke for the very first time, Mortensen hits every note to perfection in a role where playing a hopeless character could very well make him a hopeful contender at the Oscars.
When I first read McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel years ago, I recall saying numerous times to myself: "This is a movie just waiting to be made." I didn't even realize until about halfway into it that all the main characters are nameless. Going into the screening, I wondered if keeping that same form would work when it made the jump to film, but Hillcoat understands the underlying motives of the story, and structures every scene in a way that manages to keep the emphasis set not on who the characters are personally, but what they represent in the essence of human survival.
Say what you will about how most of us weren't good enough to work on the lot, but when you hear critics say "it's more than just a movie," this is exactly the kind of film we're talking about ... one that is fully alive in every which way to the point where you leave the theater knowing you have been affected by the experience of seeing it. Only then do we know that we have paid good money to see what I like to call ... a masterpiece!
Grade: A
It's become somewhat of a trend for end-of-the-world/survival sagas to rely on one man to carry most, if not all, of the film's weight, and even when the overall payoff wasn't so good, Will Smith ("I Am Legend") and Tom Hanks ("Cast Away") both managed to provide excellent leadership in the past.
Mortensen may be getting a little help from pre-teen McPhee along the way, but bringing out all the potential in the film's narrative is ultimately in Mortensen's hands. Whether it be pointing a gun at someone he deems threatening, or watching his 10-year old son taste Coke for the very first time, Mortensen hits every note to perfection in a role where playing a hopeless character could very well make him a hopeful contender at the Oscars.
When I first read McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel years ago, I recall saying numerous times to myself: "This is a movie just waiting to be made." I didn't even realize until about halfway into it that all the main characters are nameless. Going into the screening, I wondered if keeping that same form would work when it made the jump to film, but Hillcoat understands the underlying motives of the story, and structures every scene in a way that manages to keep the emphasis set not on who the characters are personally, but what they represent in the essence of human survival.
Say what you will about how most of us weren't good enough to work on the lot, but when you hear critics say "it's more than just a movie," this is exactly the kind of film we're talking about ... one that is fully alive in every which way to the point where you leave the theater knowing you have been affected by the experience of seeing it. Only then do we know that we have paid good money to see what I like to call ... a masterpiece!
Grade: A
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