Purely Joyful Movie!

Just perfect...

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The Road is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic drama, based off The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. The film was directed by John Hillcoat. The man (played by Viggo Mortensen) and the boy (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world as they travel on the road to the southern coast, in hopes of warmth and refugee. The mother of the boy, (played by Charlize Theron), deserted the two years after the apocalypse. Those who read the novel know that cannibalism is a huge element within the storyline of The Road, which I think wasn't emphasized enough. The element of cannibalism was significantly downplayed within the film. The only time cannibalism is truly shown in the film is when the boy and the man enter the basement of a house, and find several nude and starving people who were locked up. It is assumed that these people were being held captive as a food source for their captors. Another aspect that played a huge role within the text but wasn't really incorporated in the text was the setting. After reading The Road and before watching the film, I anticipated the setting of the entire film to be dark, grey, bleak, and full of ash. These aspects play a large role in why the journey south was so treacherous. The film did a poor job of showing a post-apocalyptic world in my opinion. The setting of the movie gave me the impression that the weather was constantly cloudy, and that the establishments such as various buildings, stores, and houses were being poorly maintained. There were no places shown within the film that gave off the feeling of being abandoned or burned down, just ignored. The only aspect of this movie that I really enjoyed was the input of voice overs and narration of some scenes. The use of voice overs helped incorporate the "vibe" given off when reading through the pages of McCarthy's writing. Overall, the film did a poor job of trying to bring Cormac McCarthy's writing to life. There were quintessential aspects of the book that made it so enjoyable were left out. The man and son were unrealistically lucky within the film, to the point where the film became stale.(How can a cold, starving man on the brink of death go diving into a freezing sea and walk out like it was nothing?) The actors' performances were subpar at best. And to top the movie off, the only African American within the film robbed the boy and the man, and then was robbed himself. If I had to rate this movie from 1 through 10, 1 being absolutely a piece of garbage and 10 being the best film I've ever seen, I would give this movie 4. The effort was there, but upon further review, not really.

I literally did not smile once, my soul is drained and any happiness that resided in me has now been utterly decimated. Good lord this was bleak. In a post-apocalyptic future, mankind is on the brink of extinction where only a few fight for survival. A father and son are pushed to their limits but the love between them keeps the battle for survival strong. This is a story where hope is completely diminished. There is no rainbow at the end of the road, just misery and death. It explores themes of mortality and memories. Succumbing to the fear of death where you no longer wish to be alive. But the nostalgic memories of past happiness pushes the mind further and adds that little sense of hope that was once gone. Trust no one, do whatever it takes to survive. Heck, I've never wanted a tinned can of Del Monte peaches so much in all my life. It's a harsh environment, where scavenging for food is the only means of staying alive. Consistent earthquakes, cannibalism, forest fires...it's a torturous world. But what keeps the narrative flowing, is the tight relationship between father and son. Raising a child where there is no hope is a difficult task, particularly where solitude and loneliness plays a key role in this future. But the chemistry between Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee is sonphenomenally well portrayed that I was undertaking this perilous journey with them. A transformative performance for both of them. Director John Hillcoat embeds scenes that includes the father's past love (played beautifully by Charlize Theron) which reminds us that there is still humanity within him. It's absolutely resonating. The Road's weakness is its script which unfortunately was not particularly compelling for me. The visual narration conveyed the themes, so scenes filled with dialogue just felt uninteresting. At times the story does feel monotonous, going from one bad scenario to the other. However this is the brutal depiction of a post-apocalyptic future where there is no hope. An extremely depressing yet powerful cinematic piece.

Ok, this movie isn't bad. It entertains me when I'm on a post-apocalyptic movie kick. The camera work and settings are well done. The acting is good. The story is decent overall, besides a few parts that always annoy me. I'll go over those:1. The kid. He's way too old to be such a absolute sissy. I know he's had a rougher life than any of us can imagine, but wouldn't that more likely make him a tough little dude? He constantly cries and whines. It would have been a much more effective movie if he were a) younger, b) a girl, or c) tougher2. The cache of food and supplies they find. I guess that was put there by the only anti-gun survivalists in the USA? All that stuff and no weapons of any kind. Nope. What good are all the supplies in the world when someone with a BB gun can take it all from you? Any survivalist knows you have to be able to defend your stash because 99.9% of people don't prepare for as much as a week long ice storm, and they will take what is yours in order to survive. Also, the reasoning for leaving it was really stupid. They heard a noise...and left their best bet to survive since the day the "event" happened. If it was someone hanging around to hurt them, wouldn't they have been attacked when they left? They didn't even leave in the dark. WUT?3. No good reason for going south. With no sunlight penetrating anywhere, it probably wouldn't be much warmer and there certainly wouldn't be anything growing there...Without sunlight, the ocean is as dead as the land. They could have said "We heard there was a call for people to go there and start a community" or something. 4. Stereotypical bad guys....another reviewer put it perfectly as "NASCAR cannibals" Deplorables, right? 5. A wimpy marine flare killing a guy from 50 yards away by hitting him in the chest. Nope, not gonna happen. It's an Estes rocket engine with some added metal/chemical powder to make it bright. It is no more powerful than one of the large bottle rockets you launch on the 4th. This may sound like a lot of complaints, but there is more good than bad. Aside from the kid annoying me, most of my complaints are nit-picks.

This movie is an essay on humanity: why we are the way we are. Why some give up, why some fight against everything, why some are good, why some are evil.Why love is not immutable, why the time chooses you and you don't choose the time. Why life is not what you expect, but what you can do with what you get. Why purpose is the engine of life. Why carrying the fire is the most important thing.Based on the namesake novel by Cormac McCarthy, The Road translates perfectly the thrill and reflection of the book. The acting by Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron conveys every emotion without the need of any ornament. The art direction with the contrast between the dreams from the past and the desolation in the present is perfect. The photography and the art direction are a punch in your stomach. And finally, the edit and direction are masterful. John Hillcoat makes the story crawl the way the life does in that apocalyptic world: slow and with determination.For me, this is with Children of Men on of the best films about what happens when society as we know gets destroyed and humanity shows what is really all about