Review of The Road (2009) by Rcr — 20 Dec 2009
This is a decent adaptation of the novel. On the surface, the music often overpowers rather than underscores and there are too many 'cameo' performances casted in a story that explicitly seeks to remove almost all familiarity of the known world from the audience.
Viggo Mortensen offers great work in this film; Viggo's portrayal of a man who has witnessed a world lost and who struggles to protect and equip his son against the horrors that now threaten the new one provides equal measure intensity and subtlety.
Thankfully, most of the horrific examples of desperation in McCarthy's novel are intact, but the sense of the passage of time between them is condensed to the point where they don't really exist.
This is, understandably, an obstacle in the film medium. However, a story that features "starvation" as a strong thematic element requires attention to time and pacing. The story is simply better suited to the pacing afforded in novel form.
This review of The Road (2009) was written by Rcr on 20 Dec 2009.
The Road has generally received positive reviews.
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