Jennifer Fallon - the Official Site

Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel is the basis for this story about a man (Viggo Mortensen)  and his son (Kodi Smit-Mcphee), trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where the Earth is dying. In this monochromatic world, the sun is hidden behind an oppressive bank of clouds, nothing is growing, all the animals are dead, and what is left of humanity has turned to cannibalism to survive. Terrified for his son's future, the man is distrustful and desperate as he tries to find enough food and shelter, while the world grows colder and ever more inhospitable. Heading for the dubious safety of the coast, they struggle to keep together and alive in world gone wild.

Chances are, like me, you haven't read this book, so it's hard to say how the book translates to the screen and you probably shouldn't judge it by the book anyway. As a movie, however, it is spectacularly and relentlessly bleak, the lack of hope oppressive and so tiring, that a couple of times I found myself hoping the characters would use the two bullets they had left to put us all out of our misery.

The nature of the apocalypse remains unstated, as do the names of the characters. The misery is broken periodically by the man's dreams of happier times, and his wife (Charlize Theron) who succumbs to the loss of all hope much sooner than her husband and her son.

Viggo Mortensen is intense and unyielding as the man trying to cling to the last vestiges of his humanity in a world where it no longer exists. The stand-out, however, is newcomer Kodi Smit McPhee who, in addition to looking as if he really is Charlize Theron's son, delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance for one so young. You can be sure you'll be seeing more of this young man.

Directed by Australian director John Hillcoat — whose previous outing about a man who sells out his brother to save his own neck, The Proposition, penned by Nick Cave, is almost cheerful by comparison — the film never wavers from its bleak tone. Hillcoat has an eye for the gothic, and the graphic. Be prepared for some grisly and confronting scenes as father and son dodge roving bands of cannibals, stumbling across their killing grounds more than once, which are depicted in great and glorious detail.

One can't fault the acting in this film, the cinematography or the art direction. I thought the ending a little too glib and Hollywood, however.  In a world so lacking in hope, it seemed rather contrived to have it suddenly spring from nowhere, although I understand the need for some sort of resolution that didn't leave the audience wanting to slash their wrists with despair by the end of the film. I'm not sure if the book has the same ending, but if it has, perhaps it needed some relief, too.

This is not a date movie, but if you want to see something that will stay with you long after the come up, then this is definitely for you.