The Road
AroView: Cormac McCarthy’s much-feted novel about the lengths a father goes to protect his son’s innocence in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is the source material for this unsettling drama of survival and paternal love.
While this adaptation is not entirely at one with the dread, tension, and unlikely tenderness that made McCarthy’s story so unforgettable, director John Hillcoat nevertheless lays down a vivid, CG-assisted canvas of devastation. Viggo Mortensen and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee service the central father-son relationship sensitively, cutting through the doom and gloom without ever tipping into mawkishness, while regular Hillcoat collaborators Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provide the score.
