THE ROAD

This is a great film, but it is also a very dark and bleak film. There are moments where it will leave your heart empty and black. It is set in a post apocalyptic America and centres around Man, played brilliantly by Vigo Mortenson, and his son, trying to survive in this lawless land where food is scarce and other human cannibals roam. In a few flashbacks we see Man, with his then wife Charlize Theron, who couldn’t take the harshness of this new reality and leaves them by choosing to take her own life, this makes the rest of the film seem even harsher knowing that many people would rather die than to continue struggling to survive. Watching this film you get to see two very different sides to the human psyche, firstly it is the unflinching bond of love between a boy and his son (played with outstanding brilliance by Kodi Smit-McPhee). And the sacrifices they make for each other. On the flip side you see humanity at its lowest and most desperate form, feral groups hunting America for other humans to eat, sometimes storing them in cellars to feed on at a later date, and the absolute feeling of each man for himself and the primeval instinct for self survival, brilliantly shown in a moment when Man and Boy argue about what to do with a man they come across.

So a terrifically performed film, just don’t go see if you’re depressed or feeling down. That said the ending, whilst still realistic, is not all and gloom .

4 stars