The Road

This is the film that I most looked forward to this entire year, actually two years because it was due out last year and was delayed. I am an unabashed fan of the Cormack McCarthy novel. I think it's great modern literature even though I do not consider myself an expert in the field of modern literature. It did of course win the Pulitzer so maybe that corroborates my view. Anyway I couldn't wait. Do I sound like one of those Twilight teenyboppers?
Expectation is a bitch. Your favorite book very seldom becomes your favorite movie. In the case of "The Road" this holds true for me. It doesn't have the impact of the extraordinary novel. But it ain't bad.
This is a post-apocalypse road picture. A father and son, two "good guys", travel south searching for scarce food and scarcer security and trying to avoid the "bad guys" along the way. Sound trite? Not a bit. Those bad guys are lawless scavengers who survive by cannibalism. They'd just as soon eat you as look at you. It's a vicious, unforgiving and bleak world. But believe it or not, it isn't bleak enough. Had director John Hillcoat been more ruthless in his vision this might have been a masterpiece. A masterpiece that no one would watch. He's taken the edge off and provided a bit more audience accessibility. The result is that he has sacrificed the sharpness of the allegory for watchability. The novel is mankind's journey through darkness toward the light of salvation (religious or not). This movie, as it is, is more about humans than humanity.
Still, this is a damn fine film if you can take it.