Movie Primer: The Road

This is a short primer for the dark post apocalyptic drama The Road. The film will have its wide release on October 9th. The trailer for this film can be found at http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/theroad/

The Plot: Some incident has happened to put the world in a bad place. Ash covers the sky and most of humanity has been wiped out. After nearly dying in a very harsh winter a man and his son try to travel to the coast to find a better life. Along the way they will be chased my bandits and have to endure a world that is dying.

Star Power: Viggo Mortensen plays the father. His biggest role was in the Lord of the Rings movie but most recently he has been seen in Appaloosa and Good. The son is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, an Austrailian child actor who has mostly done TV before this. The lovely Charlize Theron plays Viggo's wife in a role that has been expanded in this adaptation of the award winning book of the same name. Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall have small roles in the film.

Behind the Screen: The Road was originally a book by Cormac McCarthy, but has been adapted for the big screen by Joe Penhall. Penhall is mostly known for his plays like the Dumb Show and Blue/Orange. John Hillcoat directs the film. Hillcoat has directed many music videos but only started doing movies recently. His film debut was the critically acclaimed The Proposition.

What to Expect: For a while it seemed like this movie would, much like it's main characters struggle to see the light of day. Despite the book being a huge success the movie struggled to get developed. Then when it was nearly finished its release day was pushed back to polish the special effects. This had some fans of the book worried for most were looking for a movie with a focus on the drama, not the FX. Still watching the preview I have to say some of the visuals were worth the wait. In the end movies are a visual medium and so I can understand the need to throw in a few more jaw dropping shots than the book might of called for. The movie still looks plenty bleak and the focus stays true to the book. This is really a story about a man and his child trying to survive. Its going to be a hard one to watch, of the movies making a buck off the end of the world this is indeed one of the most bleak. It also might end up being one of the only ones with real substance.

Sources
http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/theroad/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/