Saw The Road tonight and my initial impression was... Good. But as the night has worn on, I find that the film has conspicuously left my thoughts entirely. And that is not good. For anyone who doesn't know, the film, based on the highly acclaimed Cormac McCarthy novel, follows a father and his young son as they struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The audience is never told how exactly the world became like this. All we know is that almost no animals have survived, there are minor earthquakes that seem to occur in places that geologically don't support such activity, and many people have resorted to cannabilism in order to survive.
This film simply doesn't bring enough to the table. Film audiences have been exposed to far more complex and emotionally gripping post-apocalyptic cinema than this. And for a movie to be so weighted in contextual ambiguities, much has to be done right to compensate. Well, this film does not do everything right. And as a result, the ambiguities that seemingly enriched the novel, detract from the film. If the film had had more creative ambition--and more of a dramtic spine--than ambiguity would not be an issue. Unfortunately, in this film director John Hillcoat, more often than not, plays it safe and lets this world speak for itself TOO MUCH. The problem is there is only so much that a perpetually grey landscape, falling trees, and dirt-caked survivors can evoke before one expects the director to do more. On a positive note, Viggo Mortensen, struggling to do much with little, turns in a very good performance.
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