REVIEW: The Road

The Road (dir. John Hillcoat, 2009) ****

reviewed by David Sugarman

An early tip for award success that has since somewhat dropped off the radar, this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s (author of No Country For Old Men) Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale of a man (Viggo Mortensen) travelling south with his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Director John Hillcoat does well to retain a constant level of danger, so that even the moments of relief from the oppressively empty landscape seem temporary and ill-advised, and screenwriter Joe Penhall gets the most out of the book’s few dialogue exchanges, plus a few great moments of voiceover by Viggo Mortensen (“If he is not the word of God, then God never spoke” was one particularly memorable line for me). Every actor puts in a stunning performance, and occasionally the film manages to hint at hope and redemption, though these are only the briefest of spark in such a dark tale. The Road is an excellent film, though (predictably) does not manage to capture the lightning of  McCarthy’s book. As is often the case with adaptations of great novels, the film conveys the drama excellently, but the story is not what makes The Road a great novel. It is McCarthy’s lyrical prose and radical formal style that sets it apart; The Road is not a formally radical film. Just a very good one.