The Road

"The Road"
Starring: Viggo Mortenson, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Kodi Smit-McPhee

John Hillcoat's "The Road" is so steeped in dread, yet it's all a little hard to take serious. The film adapted from the successful novel by Cormac McCarthy, tells the post apocalyptic tale of a  father and son's journey across many barren and gray landscapes. The sky is forever dark, not many humans exist, except for the father and son, numerous other survivors, and packs of cannibals that roam the streets on trucks.

Viggo Mortenson plays the father, a loving and protecting man who once had a wife as we're shown through flashbacks. The wife is played by Charlize Theron, whom gets around 10 minutes of screen time. The young boy is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, he lacks the natural talent of a youngster to elevate his important scenes with Mortenson, but is mostly serviceable.

The production design is fantastic in depicting the harsh and unforgiving terrain that the father and son must get through . We never learn exactly what caused the global  catastrophe, but it's really of no relevance to the plot. Hillcoat's attempts to create a haunting and treacherous journey for the father and son are taken away by moments that simply don't pay off. It's hard to buy most of the material here, perhaps this was a book that contained an unattainable vision on the big screen.

"The Road" suffered from production delays before it's initial release last November, it opened to middling to good reviews, but failed in its attempt to grab the Academy. The film will have no lasting impact and might as well stand alone with other post apocalyptic blunders.