Poor Excuse For Post-Apocalyptic

Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road is by far the best book I have read in my three years at this institution. The struggle the father and son go through to find hope in a post-apocalyptic world is one of the dominant themes in the book, only beaten by the great relationship shown between the two with few words and gestures. These characteristics make the book an instant favorite and a heart-wrenching story, but frankly, the recently released movie does not come close to showing this. I'm not going to trash the movie, as it was very well done. The world around the father and son being in total dismay and the ridiculous transformations the actors have to take to become the characters physically, were beautifully done. Beautiful might not seem like the right word, since we are talking about a world ripped apart by a catastrophe and all the characters are no heavier than 150 lbs. (including Viggo Mortensen), but the aesthetics of the movie are just breathtaking. With this film, John Hillcoat is definitely putting his name in with the handful of directors associated with the best end-of-the-world movies (i.e. Roland Emerich). Again, I am giving Hillcoat props for the looks of the movie and putting all blame for the downfall of The Road on Joe Penhall who adapted McCarthy's novel. This review may be a little biased since I am a huge fan of the book, but I can probably conclude that if you did not read The Road, the movie might be good for you. The movie shows all the action that is in the book with minor tweaks to the plot, so it won't bore you-it will only annoy those who have read it. Apart from the lack of relationship between the father and son in this movie, the two actors really do an amazing job. No one expected Viggo to do a bad job, and he was on par. He didn't surpass expectation, which would have been nice since he stated this would be his last film ever. He soon recanted his statements on retiring, and we can all thank him for that. On the other hand, we have yet another great child actor on our hands. Kodi Smit-McPhee showed he was meant for this role, as he broke everyone's hearts with his whimpers and cries throughout the film. The 12-year-old has not been in any noticeable roles, but there is no doubt that The Road will show everyone that he deserves to get any role available for a child. This movie will be a hit, and I'm sad to say it is because no one has read the book. It's a typical blockbuster production of a great book, and it does no justice to Cormac McCarthy. Maybe the Coen brothers should have been hired again.

Grade: C