such a challenging piece of cinema. How do you go about selling an end-of-the-world movie with few special effects based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy? While 2012 and adaptations of Stephen King’s books practically sell themselves, this tale of a father and his son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) attempting to survive in a desolate world is another thing altogether.
That’s too bad because this is a very good film, an unrelenting look at the best and worst sides of human nature that emerge when society has collapsed. To be sure, McCarthy’s vision is bleak and Hillcoat captures it perfectly. While there are some special effect shots used at times, this certainly is not a computer-generated post-apocalyptic world.
Using a palette suffused in shades of gray and shooting in the barren wilds of Pennsylvania, this vision of the end of days is chilling because of its organic nature.
Mortensen and Smit-McPhee take a similar approach to their roles, generating a realistic bond as father and son. Their trial is arduous as they press towards the ocean, sensing some hope exists there. As they make their way through the barren landscape and do their best to avoid clans that have resorted to cannibalism, the love between these two grows, though the bond between them is in danger of breaking at any time. Danger and hard choices lurk around every bend in the road. The father is resistant to trust or help anyone, while the boy’s inherent nature tells him to share whatever they have and help in any way possible. This is especially poignant when they meet a stranger (Robert Duvall) who is temporarily allowed into their circle.
The irony of the film is that the father finds himself forced to suppress his son’s charitable nature and harden him so that he might survive, yet the boy resists, holding on fiercely to the better part of his soul. The father knows that what he is doing is, perhaps, a sin, but is necessary for the boy’s survival. This is, of course, McCarthy’s message.
On any road we travel, we are forced to make moral decisions regarding how we treat others and come to terms with our own conscience. Though the film takes place after society has collapsed, The Road proves to be a lesson on how to live every day of our lives. The hope is that more will choose to extend love and kindness, which would make any world we live in more bearable.
Life’s contradictions are Up in the Air
Much has been made about how Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air is a film for our times, how it successfully taps into our disillusionment with our society’s materialistic and emotional values. This is all true, yet what the film does better than any other in recent memory is speak to our own internal conflicts and how we delude ourselves by retreating into a cocoon of denial.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is conscious that he’s living an empty life but he keeps himself busy so that he won’t have to deal with it. As a “corporate consultant” he’s brought in by failing companies to fire large numbers of dedicated employees. Spending 322 days a year on the road, Bingham has no home. Suddenly, he’s in danger of losing his job as Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a young hotshot at work, has come up with a new program to terminate people remotely (via the Internet). Bingham objects and con
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