The Road - Released on DVD This week

Not exactly a box office phenomenon.  It grossed around 1 1/2 million the weekend it opened.  I expect that the reason most people went to this film was because of one of two things:

A.  They had read Cormac McCarthy's book and/or
B.  They are a Viggo Mortensen fan.

I had never heard of Cormac McCarthy and I am a Viggo Mortensen fan and when you add that to an intriguing trailer I pretty much had to watch this film.  I almost backed away from it when my husband informed me that apparently it's quite a sad film.  Great.  You all know how I detest sad films.

So I went online to IMDB determined to find a spoiler.  I figured if I knew what was coming up maybe I could still watch it and not get so sadded out.  I was out of luck.  Two pages of reviews and not a single spoiler to be found. 

Hubby and I made a deal.  We'd watch half the movie one night and then the rest the next night and watch a comedy or something light for a half hour after before we go to bed.  Okay, I could handle that and if it was too much, I could just not watch the rest, right? 

Talk about a gripping film.  It was nothing like I thought the movie was going to be about. It is basically based on post apocalyptic times, the earth seems like it's literally dying.  All crops and trees are gone along with animals and wildlife.  Which means one thing... man is starving.  And just what do men do when they are starving and there is no food source around?  Just talking about it is giving me chest pains. (anxiety) A man and his son are trying to get to the coast where they hope life will be better.  They have been living in these times long enough to know that you don't trust anyone.  

Don't get me wrong though, this is not a gore flick.  It actually manages to portray the ugliness of what's happening without rubbing our faces in it.  We ended up watching the movie almost to the end before turning it off and only did so because it was getting late.  Still all the next day I kept wondering how it was going to end.

I don't really want to spoil the film for you if you haven't seen it so I will try to keep my comments vague. It is definitely dreary. It has made me want to go out and get the book.  I had never heard of Cormac McCarthy which is hard to believe considering he's also the author of No Country for Old Men.  He obviously writes very dark books and doesn't believe in happy endings.  While I like dark apocalyptic story lines like the Road and say Stephen King's The Stand, I still would like for it to end on a somewhat of a lighter note, the possibility that things will get better if you know what I mean.

Still, definitely worth watching.  If you are at all squeamish, I'd say no.  It does deal with cannibalism although like I said it's not super gory but there is some. 

I was absolutely amazed at the transformation that Viggo Mortensen went through to play his role.  Apparently he practically starved himself.  I couldn't believe the contrast from the healthy, smooth and cleaned skin man of the interview to the emancipated, dirty and sickly hue of his character. 

I was disappointed that Robert Duval and Guy Pearce's appearances were so short in this film.  I've come to respect both of these actors' abilities and had looked forward to seeing them in the movie.  Like I said, it was far to short, especially Guy's.  I wonder what makes these actors take such short roles in films like this? 

I also appreciated that little of this movie was done with the whole blue screen, computer generated thing. The film crew actually went to places that have had disasters and filmed there... like Mt. St. Helens and New Orleans.  Sad to think those places are still so devastated. 

Have you watched the Road? What did you think? Did you wonder what it meant when the Woman said to the boy at the end  "We've been so worried about you?". Why were they so worried?