The Road

This movie has me torn. On one hand I found the setting of an America devastated by some kind of massive destructive event, leaving the last remnants of humanity to wander a dead world absolutely fascinating. The struggle to survive turning most into cannibals, with only a few keeping the fire of their humanity alive. On the other hand, I feel like the story never made a point, besides saying things are bleak. We follow around this father and son as they go south towards the ocean, bad things happen along the way, and they both grapple with what it means to be the good guys in a bad world. Every single shot looks stark and gray, practically every location is burned or broken down, and by the end you're just left sitting there thinking "Well that was depressing."

Basically it makes me want to go and read the book, because I can tell there's something beneath this drudge of grayness that is actually an interesting story. Unfortunately, instead of exploring the depths of morality and metaphor littered throughout, the movie just takes us along on this very slow paced journey where they're either running/hiding from cannibals, walking/scavenging/sleeping, or showing how the father is pretty much a failure. He preaches about carrying the fire, being the good guy, yet when the opportunity presents itself he always looks out only for himself while his son tries desperately to make him change his mind. And that's the movie. Running, resting, scavenging, and morality. There's certainly a message to be found in it, a deeper resonance the movie was trying to achieve, but unfortunately it just came off dull. And then there's the ending...

SPOILER ALERT...I really couldn't understand the point of the ending. We've just spent almost 2 hours with this father and son, with the father trying the entire time to teach what he can. His dying request is that the son be cautious, and voila the first person he comes across, who instills no confidence whatsoever, he almost immediately trusts. Not only that, but he admits to there being others with him. And then, he admits that they've been following him the entire time. But...then it turns out to be okay. It's actually a family. It's the good guys they were searching for. Possibly. It just seemed like a very odd ending, to immediately forget his father's wishes but don't worry it's okay they're actually nice. I guess the fire lives on? END SPOILERS

To me it just felt like despite the good acting and interesting direction, what fell flat was simply the screenplay itself. It turned what could've been a fascinating philosophical study amid the backdrop of this strange alternate reality into an odd, slightly muddled post-apocalyptic journey movie where the journey didn't really have a solid beginning or end. With any luck I'll get to reading the book, and will hopefully have a much better impression.

The Road gets a 5/10.