MOVIE REVIEW: “The Road”

“The Road”
3-1/2 Flipps

It is said that when the world is in distress and answers cannot be found through the conventional means, we turn to artists for answers. The Road may not be the answer were looking for; in fact, it is a film that is hopeless to the human condition.

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, an author who gave us the darkest side of humanity in the Cohen Brothers film ‘No Country for Old Men’, it has a very simple premise. The Man (played to desperate perfection by Viggo Mortensen) treks across a barren post-apocalyptic wasteland with his son in order to reach a better life along the eastern coastline. Along the way they encounter the dangers of harsh weather, starvation and cannibal survivors that consider young children a delicacy.

            All of these elements seem bleak and hopeless and yes the film is all of those things but there is a spark of life rarely seen in many films of its kind. The Man tells his son “You have to keep that fire…The fire inside you”. They have no idea what lies ahead or if there is any humanity left in a world torn apart, all they have is each other and the fire that burns inside of all of us.

            The Road is a film of undeniable power and is more likely to leave some depressed than enlightened; it is an existential study on faith, the future and our survival, but also leaves us to ask the question ‘Do you have the fire inside you?’ .