Jason KingThe Road (7/10)
February 5th 2010 09:06
:
Most Depressing Film of All Time
Category: No Category
The Road (7/10)
I wanted to see this one desperately on the big screen and caught my break this week after work. I love apocolypse films, the whole end of the world, struggle for survival tale really engrosses me. Sean had seen it and told me to take my tissues. I have been known to cry quite frequently in films and this personal emotion struggle tale after the beggining of the end of the world has commenced was surely going to rip my heart out.
Unfortunately, it did not. There were a few scenes that got me crying, and anything with a kid in pain or emotional distress is enough to set me off, big time. But that was about it for me. I actually found this movie way too slow and quite boring. The book has made it to my must read list though as I can more fathom the emotional depth being far stronger in the famous Pullitzer winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, best known for his novel (and subsesquent movie made from it) No Country for Old Men.
The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and one of my favourite child actors Kodi Smit-McPhee (Romulus, My Father), is a slow moving emotional drama set in a bare, post apocolyptic America, where a father and son struggle to survive. They must battle limited or no food, hideous flash fires, hypothermia and the latest fear gripping survivors, cannibalism. The film is directed by Australian John Hillcoat, who you may remember did a great film with Guy Pearce known as The Proposition. If you even wait close to the end you may see Guy pop his head up in this film.
There is much to love about this film;
1) The cinematogrpahy is outstanding, the vision of the post apocolyptic future is bleak and depressing and not somewhere we want to end up by any means. It is captured on film so brilliantly I would have liked to have seen this garner an Oscar nod for this.
2) The acting is all award worthy. Viggo's performance is one of his best and his inner turmoil and distress at having to keep a young child safe and alive in this environment is quite heart wrenching. The majority of families who went through this ended up all suiciding to save themselves from the hardship. Father (Viggo) does not believe this is the right thing to do and he can't allow his "boy" to be harmed in any way. You would swear that Viggo lived as a homeless man for months prior to filming and I totally believe I could smell him in this film. Kodi is quite brilliant onscreen and his chemistry with Viggo is what makes this film. I did find some of his scenes forced but the one scene he is crying in his dad's arms after he has to kill someone had me shaking with the weeps. This kid can act and he should be watched as he is going to keep rising through the ranks. Robert Duvall is also brilliant, as always and Charlize Theron is not too shabby but too minor for me to discuss, from what I have read her character has been hacked to bits from book to film and a lot of it is missing.
3) The tale is quite unusual for a post apocolyptic film. It does not have zombies, or huge robots coming to destroy everything. This film is quite real, and because of this it can be quite disturbing. It is a strong personal experience where you know that help is not coming. For this alone, it steers quite clear of every Hollywood cliche and brings out a sad art house film, that could be a documentary of the life of what's left of a family towards the end of days.
Besides these great things, and things I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated, the film bored me to tears. I do not know if it was the overall bleakness and desperate no-hope of their struggle. Was it too depressing for me? Was I trying to avoid the doom and gloom of their struggle? I cannot answer that because their tale got me, but I kept clock watching after an hour or so in. The film is so depressing it is like OD'ing on Prozac and acid and imagining the worst that can happen. I do think the film is superbly made and a nice change from the technicolor vision of most filmmakers vision of the apocolypse but I cannot watch medical procedure TV shows while eating and this film could have had a similar effect on me. It is an emotional endurance race and I lagged woefully behind.
The end also annoyed the hell out of me. To go from something so horrendously bad to a little light appearing a few minutes later was a bit too candy coated for me. In the situation I would honestly have preferred Boy to blow his head off. It would have suited the tone of the film much better and emphasised the "there is no hope" theme. Cynical perhaps?
Another thing I would have preferred to see more of was Father's journey dealing with the theme of "when do we stop becoming the good guys and become the bad guys". Boy talks about this quite a lot and you do see Father (Viggo) struggle with it. In his depseration you can see him leaning towards becoming a bad guy, mainly through his penultimate instinct and devotion to the safe protection of his son. You can see why, with the bad people kidnapping for a feast etc. I just found it was only breached upon and left unfinished.
One other minor thing that annoys the crap out of me. Kodi Smit-McPhee is not billed on the poster or the trailer, although he is an equal lead with Viggo. OK, he is not as known as Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron or Guy Pearce but this kid is the heart of the film and it is a massive shame they did not have his name on more than the credits.
There will be NO smiling in this film and I am surprised I did not cry more, but I do think it went beyond what I am willing to sit through. I want to be entertained in a film and not want to slash my wrists. Watch this one for it's amazing story and superb acting. I read another review today that summarises my thoughts perfectly. "This film is unwatchable and unmissable at the same time". Out now on limited release so check your newspapers to find out where it's playing. Worth 7/10.
I wanted to see this one desperately on the big screen and caught my break this week after work. I love apocolypse films, the whole end of the world, struggle for survival tale really engrosses me. Sean had seen it and told me to take my tissues. I have been known to cry quite frequently in films and this personal emotion struggle tale after the beggining of the end of the world has commenced was surely going to rip my heart out.
Unfortunately, it did not. There were a few scenes that got me crying, and anything with a kid in pain or emotional distress is enough to set me off, big time. But that was about it for me. I actually found this movie way too slow and quite boring. The book has made it to my must read list though as I can more fathom the emotional depth being far stronger in the famous Pullitzer winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, best known for his novel (and subsesquent movie made from it) No Country for Old Men.
The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and one of my favourite child actors Kodi Smit-McPhee (Romulus, My Father), is a slow moving emotional drama set in a bare, post apocolyptic America, where a father and son struggle to survive. They must battle limited or no food, hideous flash fires, hypothermia and the latest fear gripping survivors, cannibalism. The film is directed by Australian John Hillcoat, who you may remember did a great film with Guy Pearce known as The Proposition. If you even wait close to the end you may see Guy pop his head up in this film.
There is much to love about this film;
1) The cinematogrpahy is outstanding, the vision of the post apocolyptic future is bleak and depressing and not somewhere we want to end up by any means. It is captured on film so brilliantly I would have liked to have seen this garner an Oscar nod for this.
2) The acting is all award worthy. Viggo's performance is one of his best and his inner turmoil and distress at having to keep a young child safe and alive in this environment is quite heart wrenching. The majority of families who went through this ended up all suiciding to save themselves from the hardship. Father (Viggo) does not believe this is the right thing to do and he can't allow his "boy" to be harmed in any way. You would swear that Viggo lived as a homeless man for months prior to filming and I totally believe I could smell him in this film. Kodi is quite brilliant onscreen and his chemistry with Viggo is what makes this film. I did find some of his scenes forced but the one scene he is crying in his dad's arms after he has to kill someone had me shaking with the weeps. This kid can act and he should be watched as he is going to keep rising through the ranks. Robert Duvall is also brilliant, as always and Charlize Theron is not too shabby but too minor for me to discuss, from what I have read her character has been hacked to bits from book to film and a lot of it is missing.
3) The tale is quite unusual for a post apocolyptic film. It does not have zombies, or huge robots coming to destroy everything. This film is quite real, and because of this it can be quite disturbing. It is a strong personal experience where you know that help is not coming. For this alone, it steers quite clear of every Hollywood cliche and brings out a sad art house film, that could be a documentary of the life of what's left of a family towards the end of days.
Besides these great things, and things I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated, the film bored me to tears. I do not know if it was the overall bleakness and desperate no-hope of their struggle. Was it too depressing for me? Was I trying to avoid the doom and gloom of their struggle? I cannot answer that because their tale got me, but I kept clock watching after an hour or so in. The film is so depressing it is like OD'ing on Prozac and acid and imagining the worst that can happen. I do think the film is superbly made and a nice change from the technicolor vision of most filmmakers vision of the apocolypse but I cannot watch medical procedure TV shows while eating and this film could have had a similar effect on me. It is an emotional endurance race and I lagged woefully behind.
The end also annoyed the hell out of me. To go from something so horrendously bad to a little light appearing a few minutes later was a bit too candy coated for me. In the situation I would honestly have preferred Boy to blow his head off. It would have suited the tone of the film much better and emphasised the "there is no hope" theme. Cynical perhaps?
Another thing I would have preferred to see more of was Father's journey dealing with the theme of "when do we stop becoming the good guys and become the bad guys". Boy talks about this quite a lot and you do see Father (Viggo) struggle with it. In his depseration you can see him leaning towards becoming a bad guy, mainly through his penultimate instinct and devotion to the safe protection of his son. You can see why, with the bad people kidnapping for a feast etc. I just found it was only breached upon and left unfinished.
One other minor thing that annoys the crap out of me. Kodi Smit-McPhee is not billed on the poster or the trailer, although he is an equal lead with Viggo. OK, he is not as known as Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron or Guy Pearce but this kid is the heart of the film and it is a massive shame they did not have his name on more than the credits.
There will be NO smiling in this film and I am surprised I did not cry more, but I do think it went beyond what I am willing to sit through. I want to be entertained in a film and not want to slash my wrists. Watch this one for it's amazing story and superb acting. I read another review today that summarises my thoughts perfectly. "This film is unwatchable and unmissable at the same time". Out now on limited release so check your newspapers to find out where it's playing. Worth 7/10.
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Comment by Anonymous
but credit should go to the lead actors and the amazing images used.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Thanks for visiting!!
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
I like the mournful Nick Cave/Warren Ellis score too. I agree the ending needed to continue the bleak arc of the narrative, though apparently that's how it ends in the book.
Your ending sounds like a beauty and even though it's maybe even a bit too extreme for me, I like your way of thinking with that one mate!!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
The score was good - I should have mentioned that.
I have put the book on my list to read as a lot of people have commented that as usual a lot is missing from the movie. Charlize's character has an entire backstory to her. I would hope the end had more of a gap between the sad bit and the little bit of grace for Boy. He kept playing with the gun and getting his head around it - my ending is much more realistic and could have left every member of the audience floored
Thanks heaps for your thoughts!
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
I will say though PMC - it is a superb brillant piece of acting from Viggo. He has such presence. And I like him more scruffier with longer hair.
Thanks for the comment!