We're on a Road to Nowhere...

The Road
Starring: Viggo Mortenson, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall
Director: John Hillcoat
Rating: **** (out of 5)


Summary: A father and son walk through the wastelands of America after an apocalyptic event and fight for survival from cannibalistic gangs and starvation...

I've come to the conclusion that The Road is a man's film. Estranged fathers and sons should see this movie to rekindle their relationship or the government should show it to absentee dads as a demonstration of the responsibility that comes with bringing a life into this world.

It's the simplicity of the story and the bare bones that are exposed, metaphorically and in the physical sense, that makes The Road such a refreshing antidote to recent end of the world movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and I Am Legend. Those films, weighed down by big budgets, rewrites and test audiences, are insecure about their representation of humanity during such a crisis and as such are diluted, unintelligent exercises. The Road is nihilistic and dirty but driven by an unambiguous moral code of right and wrong which is dealt with subtlety rather than bombastic special effects and emotional histronics.

This movie certainly won't be for everyone, with its collection of emaciated bodies, lifeless trees, cold windswept landscapes and bleak outlook on humanity's survival after an apocalyptic event. However, despite the harsh colourless aesthetic of the piece, at its core is a simple and poignant relationship between a father and son that cannot be broken.