Review: The Road

It's the holiday season, and that means we get a lot of relentlessly cheerful comedies in theaters. But it's also the Oscar season, which means we get some heavy-duty dramas. The Road is one of the latter -- in fact, you may find the post-apocalyptic drama a refreshing antidote to forced holiday cheeriness.

I've heard some complaints from people who read Cormac McCarthy's book before seeing the movie that they felt the adaptation of The Road has pulled some punches -- it's not as relentlessly downbeat as the book. Personally, I think the movie is one of the most grim I've seen in a long time, and I didn't need to see babies cooking on a spit to reinforce the film's tone.

The character in The Road are unnamed, for the most part. A man (Viggo Mortenson) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are traveling, and as they travel, we learn more about them and the state of their surroundings in flashbacks. Some great disaster (probably nuclear) befell the world before the son was born, and devastated the landscape with floods, fire, and massive death. Nothing grows, no creatures but humans are alive. Humans scavenge in old buildings for canned and preserved food, but many have resorted to cannibalism for nourishment. The young boy is a prime target.

The movie shows us few characters but the man and his son as they travel south, hoping for a warmer climate and perhaps some signs of life if they can reach the coast. Robert Duvall plays an old man they overtake. Charlize Theron appears in flashbacks, both as the woman the man loved before disaster struck, a young and carefree pianist ... and later, when she has been beaten down into submission by her situation.

You sit and watch this movie, and after awhile you realize it can't get any better for these characters. They know it, too, and the man has reserved the few bullets in his gun to potentially use on themselves should the situation become even worse. He continually shows his son how to use the pistol ... on himself. This is the dark, unhappy, more realistic twin of a movie like Zombieland -- the dusty drab landscapes reminded me at times of neighborhoods in New Orleans I visited right after Katrina and the resulting floods.

The Road is cold and difficult but ultimately a rewarding film. The acting is excellent, notably Kodi Smit-McPhee as the son. If you want to feel thankful for the world we live in, and the things we have and don't appreciate -- trees, grass, bread -- The Road will certainly stop you cold in the middle of winter holiday madness and remind you a little bit about what's important, in the least sentimental way possible.