Review of The Rover (2014) by Thomas W — 01 Sep 2014

Director David Michôd created a small sensation a few years back with his debut feature, Animal Kingdom (2010), about a small-time crime family in Australia whose diabolical matriarch put actress Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) on the Hollywood map.

He returns with another bleaker feature set in Australia but this one is set in an uncertain future some 10 years after a financial apocalypse has devastated civilization - think Mad Max lite - and it stars Guy Pearce (Memento) as a man on a mission: retrieve his last worldly possession - his car - after it has been stolen by three criminals on the run from a bloody shoot-out with one (Scoot McNairy - Argo) lamenting leaving his younger brother behind.

After the three men steal the automobile while Pearce's Eric sips a drink at a rundown roadside tavern, they outgun him when he sets of in pursuit of them in their wrecked vehicle forcing Eric to rethink his strategy and return to the town to ask questions about the men he is after.

When a bloodied young man named Rey (Robert Pattinson - Twilight) arrives on the scene of the theft asking how Eric came upon his brother's car, Eric finds himself a gun and brings along this "slow" and naïve soul as an unwitting accomplice hoping to use him in an exchange for his car.

On the trek through the Outback, the two come to an understanding of one another and help each other out in ways most likely wholly unexpected to the other on the outset of their journey. The film is pretty bleak with its relatively depressing storyline and unforgivable setting.

Pearce and Pattinson both do respectable jobs here and Michôd proves a capable talent behind the camera (even though this one isn't as engrossing or captivating as Animal Kingdom). The film doesn't have a ton of dialogue and the action sequences are few and far between but this is a drama masquerading as an apocalyptic action film so it'll likely be too slow for some but I know I'll watch Michôd's next film.