If all goes according to plan, this November, we'll be able to see a movie I'm anticipating more breathlessly than any other: The Road.
It's based on the acclaimed 2006 novel by Cormac McCarthy
about a father, with his young son, traveling across the
But it's no science fiction story - The Road is instead a parable, almost a myth. No character is given a name, which in some stories comes across like a gimmick but here seems almost necessary. The son was born only a few days after the man and his wife "watched distant cities burn." Some time thereafter, the wife took her own life.
Since then, father and son have been traveling the landscape in search of food (the sky is always gray, and nothing will grow), coming across old relics or survivors, and avoiding roaming bands of cannibals. The father's only goal is to keep his son alive.
McCarthy is an abstract writer, and not at all easy to read, but his prose is powerful and more often than not beautiful. But since I'm a movie lover more than a book lover (sorry, English teachers), I read the book fantasizing about what its striking setting would look like as a movie.
The movie filmed this past spring under the direction of
John Hillcoat. An Australian director
responsible for the violent Outback drama The Proposition, he has the
uncompromising vision able to bring McCarthy's tale to life - and The
Proposition was also quite visually striking, so it's a good sign that he
has brought along the same cinematographer, Benoît Delhomme.
Viggo Mortensen plays the father in what is perhaps the best
casting decision of recent memory. Aside
from having the right look for the role, Mortensen can portray the sadness,
desperation, and also
devotion and love that's so important for the role. Relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the
young son; he had a major role in the little-seen 2007 drama Romulus, My Father, starring Eric Bana.
Even the smaller roles have attracted top-tier talent; Charlize
Theron appears briefly as the wife, and Guy Pearce (Memento) plays a man
on the road. Likewise, Robert Duvall appears
as an old man that the father and son meet one night.
During a set visit from the New York Times (the article also includes stills from the film), Mortensen had nothing to say but praise for his co-stars, especially Smit-McPhee. "It’s a love story that’s also an endurance contest. I mean that in a positive way. They’re on this difficult journey, and the father is basically learning from the son. So if the father-son thing doesn't work, then the movie doesn't work. The rest of it wouldn't matter. It would never be more than a pretty good movie. But with Kodi in it, it has a chance to be an extremely good movie, maybe even a great one." It certainly sounds like one.
Michael Dance
StrandedinManhattan.com
**Read more articles by Michael Dance**
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