The Road
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Viggo Mortensen leads an all-star cast for this post-apocalyptic tale about an unnamed man (Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee from Romulus, My Father) travelling across an ash-covered American landscape, left in tatters by an unspecified monstrous cataclysm some years before. Most of the planet's life and civilization has been destroyed, and what's left isn't very friendly.
This is from John Hillcoat, director of gritty Outback western The Proposition, and an adaptation of an unrelenting Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) novel.
Starring
Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce
Directed by
John Hillcoat ('The Proposition')
Written by
Joe Penhall
(R16) Contains Violence & Content That May Disturb | Adaptation, Drama, Thriller | USA | Official Website
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PRESS REVIEWS
Average rating 
Chicago Sun-Times
The Road evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy's novel. It is powerful, but for me lacks the same core of emotional feeling.
Click to read full review.Christchurch Star (Nick Paris)
Unflinchingly bold assault on the senses deserves your attention, it's cinematic 'méthode champenoise', book your seat now and crystal gaze the aftertaste.
Click to read full review.Empire (UK)
One of the most chillingly effective visions of the world’s end ever put on screen -- and a heart-rending study of parenthood, to boot.
Click to read full review.Hollywood Reporter (USA)
Director John Hillcoat has performed an admirable job of bringing Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen as an intact and haunting tale, even at the cost of sacrificing color, big scenes and standard Hollywood imagery of post-apocalyptic America.
Click to read full review.New York Times
Engrossing and at times impressive, a pretty good movie that is disappointing to the extent that it could have been great. Is this the way the world ends? With polite applause?
Click to read full review.The Dominion Post (Graeme Tuckett)
If there was ever a book that would have collapsed horribly upon itself if it was buggered about with too much, The Road is that story. The novel is Pulitzer Prize-winning brilliant, and author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) is a rare and special assembler of the English language.
Click to read full review.tvnz.co.nz (Darren Bevan)
Prepare yourself for a particularly depressing end of the world.
Click to read full review.Variety (USA)
Except for the physical aspects of this bleak odyssey by a father and son through a post-apocalyptic landscape, this long-delayed production falls dispiritingly short on every front.
Click to read full review.ViewAuckland.co.nz (Matt Turner)
Beautifully shot, superbly written and powerfully moving, this is a remarkably faithful adaptation of the novel with an Oscar-worthy performance by Viggo Mortensen.
Click to read full review.Flicks.co.nz "The Road" Movie Review
Flicks.co.nz rating 
Andreas Heinemann, Flicks.co.nz
The last big-screen adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel gave us the greatness of No Country for Old Men so this next re-working of his material has a lot to live up to. Alas, The Road doesn’t come close to approaching the quality of that effort.
Whilst the grey and gloomy depiction of a disturbingly realistic post-apocalyptic world conjures up an appropriately bleak mood and malevolent setting, it’s the stage for a story that can’t take full advantage of this environment. Touches of horror, via cannibalism, are left lurking in the shadows as a largely off-screen menace when they could have been better exploited in what is an overly minimal script (save some pointless flashbacks that add little except putting Charlize Theron’s name on the marquee).
The central relationship between father and son is never fully realised either, due to the attempted portrayal of innocence by young Kodi Smit-McPhee veering into whiny territory and being underpinned by a score (by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis) that is too obvious in its attempts to tug on heart strings. It’s only the final tear-jerking sequence and a fantastic cameo from Robert Duvall that deliver the emotional intensity the film is aiming for.
There are plenty of potentially interesting ideas and concepts contained within, but they are better suited for being explored through literature than they are on screen.
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