The Road (2009)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 199
Fresh: 149 | Rotten: 50
The Road's commitment to Cormac McCarthy's dark vision may prove too unyielding for some, but the film benefits from hauntingly powerful performances from Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 13
The Road's commitment to Cormac McCarthy's dark vision may prove too unyielding for some, but the film benefits from hauntingly powerful performances from Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.
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Movie Info
A father (Viggo Mortensen) and son make their way across a post-apocalyptic United States in hopes of finding civilization amongst the nomadic cannibal tribes in 2929 Productions' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's thrilling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) directs from a screenplay provided by Joe Penhall. Charlize Theron co-stars in the Dimension Films release. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
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Cast
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Viggo Mortensen
The Man -
Kodi Smit-McPhee
The Boy -
Robert Duvall
Old Man -
Charlize Theron
Wife -
Guy Pearce
The Veteran -
Molly Parker
Veteran's Wife -
Michael K. Williams
The Thief -
Garret Dillahunt
The Gang Member -
Bob Jennings
Bearded Man -
Jack Erdie
Bearded Man #2 -
Buddy Sosthand
Archer -
Agnes Herrmann
Archer's Woman -
Kirk Brown
Bearded Face -
David August Lindauer
Man on Mattress -
Gina Preciado
Well Fed Woman -
Mary Rawson
Well Fed Woman #2
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The Road Trailer & Photos
All Critics (199) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (151) | Rotten (51) | DVD (3)
Hillcoat's movie is a resounding triumph. Stunning landscape photography sets the melancholy mood, and Nick Cave's wrenching score reinforces it. But it is the performances that ultimately hold the film together.
Top CriticHillcoat certainly provides the requisite seriousness, but what the movie lacks is an underlying sense of innocence, a sense that, however far humanity has sunk, there is at least some chance of rising again.
It hits a few tinny, sentimental notes. Still, I admire the craft and conviction of this film, and I was impressed enough by the look and the performances to recommend that you see it.
In this haunting portrait of America as no country for old men or young, Hillcoat -- through the artistry of Mortensen and Smit-McPhee -- carries the fire of our shared humanity and lets it burn bright and true.
How could anything so bleak be so promising?
You hang on to yourself for dear life, resisting belief as best you can in the face of powerful acting, persuasive filmmaking and the perversely compelling certainty that nothing will turn out all right.
The Road is a highly emotional, involving, palm-sweatingly tense movie that will scar you for life if you let it. Exhausting to watch but oddly exhilirating to experience, it's a film you'll watch once but will never forget.
Unpleasant post-apocalyptic drama.
Hillcoat does his best, and for the most part, he succeeds. The horrifically desolate landscape and the drab greys and cobalt blues of the scarred sky pervade every shot.
Una película agobiante, notablemente realizada y narrada. Tan dura y desoladora como el futuro posible que describe.
This is a tough road to follow
Without watering down Cormac McCarthy's hangman prose, John Hillcoat's adaptation transcended sad, gray apocalypse tropes to become an unexpectedly uplifting parable about faith, kindness and family at world's end.
...only half as traumatic as the Cormac McCarthy novel on which it's based - which of course means that it will still leave you a wreck.
Has an interesting thesis about morality and humanity, but lacks complexity in its approach.
"The images are searing, but there's little for Hillcoat to bat around besides endless agony. The Road is glacial and precise, but rarely offers the viewer something to chew on besides utter finality."
While identifying with characters in a bad situation is a movie must, drowning in their deep funk as much as they do, is a narrative no-no.
While identifying with characters in a bad situation is a movie must, drowning in their deep funk as much as they do, is a narrative no-no.
Shames most films with the audacity to consider themselves tearjerkers.
Um filme difícil e angustiante. (...) Mas, talvez mais surpreendente, representa uma experiência profundamente tocante.
A muddled vision, but one anchored by fiercely convicted performances by Viggo Mortensen and Robert Duvall and haunting camerawork by Javier Aguirresarobe.
Relentlessly bleak, but profound and in many ways beautiful, the voyage through The Road's utterly convincing wasteland is a raw, haunting experience but a rewarding one nonetheless.
In a post-Apocalypse world in which you can't tell the difference between good guys and bad guys, it's better to trust no one, and Man will do anything to protect Boy.
It's just a slow wander through wreckage, waiting for bad stuff to get worse.
The dull gray monotony of existence never looked as uninviting as it does in this film.
When the world goes Boom! I want Viggo Mortensen to be my dad. Who better to keep your spirits up in the hideous post-apocalyptic after life as pictured here?
The Road is a haunting portrait of what it means to be a parent.
Audience Reviews for The Road
Super Reviewer
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- The Boy: Poppa!
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- The Boy: Are you carrying the fire?
- The Veteran: Am I what?
- The Boy: Carrying the fire.
- The Veteran: You're kind of weirded out, aren't you, kid?
- The Boy: Well, are you?
- The Veteran: Yeah. I'm carrying the fire.
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- The Boy: Because we're the good guys.
- The Man: Yes.
- The Boy: And we're carrying the fire.
- The Man: Yes.
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- The Boy: Are we still the good guys?
- The Man: Yes, we're still the good guys. Of course we are.
- The Boy: And we always will be? No matter what happens?
- The Man: Always will.
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- The Man: The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calender for years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived, and all the crops are long gone. Someday all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts, and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food.
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- Wife: They're gonna catch up with us. They're gonna catch up with us and they are going to kill us.
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Latest News on The Road
February 1, 2012:
Ridley Scott Wants Cormac McCarthy's The CounselorHe's in talks to direct the Pulitzer-winning author's first spec script.
September 15, 2011:
James Franco Wants to Adapt Cormac McCarthy's Child of GodHe has it on his ever-growing pile of multimedia projects.
February 10, 2011:
Hillcoat's Wettest County Adds ThreeJohn Hillcoat's "Wettest County in the World" has a strong cast that just keeps getting stronger:...
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Foreign Titles
- The Road (2009) (CA)
- La Route (FR)
It doesnt matter what happened, it just did and when that time comes, the story revolves around someone just trying to survive. And that is the beauty of this simple but complex story. Wonderful film.