The Road (2009)

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Thank God I never read the novel as from what I've heard it's more doom & gloom than the movie, so my review is for this film. After what appears to have been a nuclear event the world has been destroyed , left dark as the sun has been blacked out from whatever happened , the world is cold and all vegetation been wiped, earthquakes and thunder storms are every day occurrences.The story starts some 10/11 years after this disaster with a Father & son constantly moving to go South, why this need is even in the story is beyond me. They eat only a mere morsel of a dead insect daily.Through the dreams of the Dad we see some of what had happened , one memory being his wife giving birth to their son, which happened some months after the world changed. So considering all the events mentioned , how did a baby being born in this world survive and grow to an almost healthy looking child? The Mother of the child just wants to die , she can't cope and just walks away from her family some short time before the story for us starts. It is her who had deemed that going South is the place to be, maybe that is the pun of it all.Through the constant tedious rotation of getting from A to B for no other reason but to make a story , there is the threat of the other humans, this is always the threat , be it a zombie , plague or nuclear, there has to be the evil survivors, in this they are cannibals. If taking this as a realistic "story" and the good people have been living like our two protagonists, eating insects and drinking boiled but very polluted water without sieving it, nobody could survive less than 6 months let alone 10 years and the cannibals wouldn't be getting any nourishment either, because they would be eating diseased flesh, caused by malnutrition which also would have dysentery complications and other factors that would be there.During one of their long journeys which also would be impossible due to lack of energy, they find a door in the ground that has been overlooked for over a decade, climbing down into it they discover a type of fallout shelter, full of canned foods, beds, clean clothes & linen , it also has clean running water and full bathroom facilities. They fill their stomachs and amazingly never vomit, they bathe and sleep. This is where this story should have ended, but no, a few footsteps above them on the covered door spooks them so they need to move once more.This story is ridiculous, boring and an unending search for something at the end of an never ending road of rinse and repeat.

The Road, a CinEuphoria Awards best cinematography winner, is about a man and his son who struggle to survive in a post apocalyptic setting. They run into many challenges including getting over the loss of the mother, finding food, and finding the mental strength to do what is necessary in order to survive, most importantly the mental strength to kill someone. At the end of the story the son if faced with the decision to go with another family, which he questions because his father said not to trust anyone, and he had the other option to stay on the beach with his father. Unique elements to this film include the different cinematic techniques used by the filmmaker. This includes the dark and sad colors present in the film as well as the filmmakers strategic angles to show the destroyed world. Personally the film was entertaining but probably not something I would watch again. It is not one of those movies you can watch over and over again. I also like movies with more happier moments, but there were not that many in this film, mostly bad things that would happen. I suggest for the viewer to read the book first so they can develop their own thought on what the characters look like then get the surprise of what they actually look like. The book does a good job describing the characters but I think when reading a book before watching a film the way you perceive the characters is always a little different then how they actually look. Personally I would recommend this film to anyone who likes post apocalyptic movie settings, thrilling moments, and emotional moments, some positive but mostly negative.

I enjoy the Fallout series of games. In these games, you play a person who's survived a nuclear apocalypse and explore the wasteland of America completing quests and missions. Being computer games, they're designed to be fun and entertaining.Dystopia is popular right now. From the unending surge of zombies (World War Z, Walking Dead, etc.) to YA (Hunger Games, Maze Runner) to more series, adult media (Automata, Blade Runner 2049). For all their attempts at making the future look grim, I personally find them quite appealing. I loathe paperwork, you see. It's the bane of my existence. I'm someone who does. I enjoy my job, for the most part, but mention 'stakeholders', 'APR percentage' and 'audits' and my brain switches off. I honestly don't care, and it stresses the hell out of me. It does more than that. It makes me miserable - depressed, even. I can't cope with it. I can't cope with the intricacies of the bureaucratic system. It confuses me, it gets me into trouble when I don't even know why, I hate it. I hate it with a passion. I have anarchic tendencies. I believe that our biology is designed to help us survive against nature. We're intelligent beings, and we've evolved to cope with the adversities thrown at us by nature. The thing is, I believe I would stand a better-than-average chance of surviving the apocalypse. I'm intelligent, and I'm tough as old boots. Ask me to do a tax rebate and I'm utterly useless, but I don't care about the cold or the heat or noise while I sleep. I'll deal with that no problem. And that's the thing with dystopian fiction - it appeals to me. They show us worlds where people like me would actually be quite successful when the vast majority of people would flounder. But not The Road. I've read the book, and it's bleak. Utterly, utterly bleak. I'm under no illusion that our usual media diet romanticises the apocalypse - makes it strangely appealing, despite everything. The Road does not. From start to finish, it's cynical, miserable, depressing, extremely grey (like, it might as well be in black and white) and raw. There's no attempt as making the apocalypse look positive - adding some glamour into it like the Fallout games do. This is not really science fiction. If you address it rationally by questioning the character motivations you'll be disappointed. This is not really sci fi in the traditional sense. This isn't a strict narrative. Characters act irrationally, even stupidly, and the whole cause of the apocalypse is unexplained. This, instead, is a drama with an apocalyptic backdrop. It's completely non-political. It doesn't care about the causes of the trouble, but rather how people react to it. It's a psychological examination of the question: 'How do you retain your sense of morality when everyone else has forsaken theirs?'. That's a difficult question to answer. Does the film do it satisfactorily? In my view, no. It's a big topic, and I wonder if the film has felt too conflicted by its commercial needs to make some money and its desire to tell a more cerebral narrative than your average blockbuster. Certain aspects are glossed over. Other things are ignored completely and logic falls by the wayside more than once. It moved me, however. To tears. And it really did get me thinking. Hey, life's pretty good. I may not be brilliant at coping with the unending form-filling and I'm never going to care much about the petty conflicts that dominate local politics, but I have money, food and shelter...and friends...and family. That's what storytelling is about. If you go into The Road expecting a zombie-style action-fest you'll be disappointed. It's slow-paced and repetitive and never gives any character any glory, No one's a hero. Go into it, right now, at this time when the media is fixated on the Middle East conflict(s), Russia, North Korea, Cambridge Analytica, nationalism, #metoo, Brexit, Trump, Iran, whatever and everyone is losing their s*** and you might find yourself approaching it very differently.

I literally did not smile once, my soul is drained and any happiness that resided in me has now been utterly decimated. Good lord this was bleak. In a post-apocalyptic future, mankind is on the brink of extinction where only a few fight for survival. A father and son are pushed to their limits but the love between them keeps the battle for survival strong. This is a story where hope is completely diminished. There is no rainbow at the end of the road, just misery and death. It explores themes of mortality and memories. Succumbing to the fear of death where you no longer wish to be alive. But the nostalgic memories of past happiness pushes the mind further and adds that little sense of hope that was once gone. Trust no one, do whatever it takes to survive. Heck, I've never wanted a tinned can of Del Monte peaches so much in all my life. It's a harsh environment, where scavenging for food is the only means of staying alive. Consistent earthquakes, cannibalism, forest fires...it's a torturous world. But what keeps the narrative flowing, is the tight relationship between father and son. Raising a child where there is no hope is a difficult task, particularly where solitude and loneliness plays a key role in this future. But the chemistry between Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee is sonphenomenally well portrayed that I was undertaking this perilous journey with them. A transformative performance for both of them. Director John Hillcoat embeds scenes that includes the father's past love (played beautifully by Charlize Theron) which reminds us that there is still humanity within him. It's absolutely resonating. The Road's weakness is its script which unfortunately was not particularly compelling for me. The visual narration conveyed the themes, so scenes filled with dialogue just felt uninteresting. At times the story does feel monotonous, going from one bad scenario to the other. However this is the brutal depiction of a post-apocalyptic future where there is no hope. An extremely depressing yet powerful cinematic piece.