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The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Movie review rating, overall Very Good - 3.5 out of 5 beams.

Think of this de facto zombie movie as No Country for Little Boys: a surreally grim milieu through which a dauntless Father must shepherd his pure hearted Son. Such a nihilistic extravaganza creates ample opportunities for life lessons of the most extreme sort. The result is gripping, though a little wearying and dangerously close to ridiculous.

The Road - Call it "No Country for Little Boys"

Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron don’t always sell their many over-the-top emotional moments as the Father and Mother, though they inhabit their roles in full and with marked distinction, the hallmark of great movie acting.

And they certainly have a memorable concert scene together. There’s a satisfied memory. Still, neither emotes especially well: Mortensen ain’t no Duvall, and Theron sure as hell ain’t no Streep.


Speaking of Robert Duvall, he nails his cameo, his trademark quicksilver expressions devastatingly impactful through the crusted over makeup he’s wearing. An all-time great, he wrings more emotion out of a facial tick than most actors get out of a death scene.

John Hillcoat directing a film from a Cormac McCarthy novel makes for a marriage made in Hell. (Consider this as a complement.) Hillcoat’s brief oeuvre includes the cult classic Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, while McCarthy hit the big time when the Coen Brothers adapted his No Country for Old Men into a big hit.

Bottom line: Great actors working at the top of their craft, directed with consummate skill, and in a story adapted from a novel by a master of the bleakly inhumane makes for a road worth traveling.

Full Review at WikPik.