
IMDb Review: The Rover1 of 1
9.4/10: My favorite film at the Cannes Film Festival, until Whiplash stormed in, was The Rover from writer/director David Michod. Michod sprang onto the screen world in 2010 from Australia with Animal Kingdom, the excellent feature that got Jacki Weaver her first Oscar nomination.
His follow-up, co-written by Joel Edgerton, is a violent, unsparing, blood-spattered and brilliant piece of filmmaking, utterly unlike Animal Kingdom in scope, but just as adept at creating characters whose interpersonal dilemmas become our dilemmas.
It's ten years after the collapse of society and, in the outback of Australia, Eric, played with barely-contained rage and intensity by Guy Pearce, is a man on a mission to regain his car, recently stolen by some thieves fleeing a botched job. They're incompetent, cowardly criminals and they're in such a hurry they leave behind a member of their crew, the simple-minded, badly wounded, Rey, played by Robert Pattinson in a career redefining role. Rey is also the younger brother of the leader of the gang, Henry, played by Scoot McNairy.
After a chance meeting Eric discovers Rey's relationship and, with a gun to the younger man's head, forces him to show him where the gang is heading.
What follows is a bloody, vicious road movie across a blasted, burning landscape. Pattinson, as the trembling, loyal, slow Rey, is the heart of the film and the bond he forms with Eric is why the film is as powerful as it is. Pearce, as usual, delivers a terrific performance. His Eric is given a chance to regain some sense of his own humanity in a world that has none and Pearce owns it.
His follow-up, co-written by Joel Edgerton, is a violent, unsparing, blood-spattered and brilliant piece of filmmaking, utterly unlike Animal Kingdom in scope, but just as adept at creating characters whose interpersonal dilemmas become our dilemmas.
It's ten years after the collapse of society and, in the outback of Australia, Eric, played with barely-contained rage and intensity by Guy Pearce, is a man on a mission to regain his car, recently stolen by some thieves fleeing a botched job. They're incompetent, cowardly criminals and they're in such a hurry they leave behind a member of their crew, the simple-minded, badly wounded, Rey, played by Robert Pattinson in a career redefining role. Rey is also the younger brother of the leader of the gang, Henry, played by Scoot McNairy.
After a chance meeting Eric discovers Rey's relationship and, with a gun to the younger man's head, forces him to show him where the gang is heading.
What follows is a bloody, vicious road movie across a blasted, burning landscape. Pattinson, as the trembling, loyal, slow Rey, is the heart of the film and the bond he forms with Eric is why the film is as powerful as it is. Pearce, as usual, delivers a terrific performance. His Eric is given a chance to regain some sense of his own humanity in a world that has none and Pearce owns it.
PeopleGuy Pearce, Robert Pattinson
TitlesThe Rover
CountriesUnited Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Germany, Egypt, Spain, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Israel, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Thailand, United States, South Africa
LanguagesEnglish