The Road

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⭐9/10

This is the movie for the book I just reviewed as I went through them concurrently. I actually watched this one years ago, closer to when it came out, and although some images have haunted me all these years, I can't say it had the effect then that it has now. 

I mean, that's the beauty of having a story told via different mediums, both versions helping to enhance the other. I won't do the same long spiel here, but all those thoughts about bleakness and overcoming dread were true here. However, I do think the movie was different than the book in that there seems to be a bit more hope. This movie has a haunting beauty throughout, something I didn't think was necessarily present in the book, mostly because the movie adds beautiful music throughout. 

In fact, I would say there is far more of an emotional range in the movie. McCarthy's writing style is quite understated, and so the drama of seeing half eaten corpses is far more visceral when given a visual, but also the tender moments of affection or hope are far more warm. I don't think that the the movie was more dramatic necessarily, but I appreciated seeing all of this visualized. 

And the visual is awesome. This movie didn't have a huge budget, but it looks fantastic. I would say the costumes are the real standout, everything looking more disgusting and derelict than I could have imagined. But the huge expanses of dying landscapes are also perfect, bleaker then the image I had in my head while reading. 

There are only like 5 speaking characters in this movie, but every performance is absolutely perfect. Viggo is awesome as always, but I thought his son, played by Kodi Smit-Mcphee as a child, was an absolute powerhouse that made this movie. More on that later, but the smaller performances by Charlize Theron, Michael Kenneth Williams and Guy Pearce were pitch perfect, performances that take a movie from good to great. Excellent stuff. 

But yeah, there is a final scene with Smit-Mcphee that made me feel a sense of dread that I am not sure I've felt before. Just an uneasy, weak feeling from a scene that I don't think I could appreciate when I was like 19. I'm not sure if this makes the movie better or worse, but man, what a response it got out of me. I kinda feel tingly remembering it now, and for all this talk about overcoming darkness, this movie definitely overcame me for a little while there. I just remember being like, I need to put this out of my mind, I can't explore this line of thinking anymore. 

But isn't that what great art is all about? Honestly, I don't know. I think this movie is incredible, and it sure made me feel things, I'm just not sure they were things I wanted to feel. I appreciate that this movie (and book) exist to explore some crazy questions, and enjoyed my trip into the darkness, but like the book, I find it almost impossible to recommend to anyone. You have to either be super mentally stable or a complete sicko to appreciate it. I'm not sure which one I am. 


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