Just went to see "The Road" (I had been really looking forward to it as I am a fan of Mr Mortensen).
What a disappointment! From the first minutes I thought to myself 'with all this bleakness it's going to be jolly hard to keep the interest going'. Well, quite! I was bored after half an hour. I found that try as I might, I just couldn't seem to care for either of them, or what happened to them. But the worst of it is that it has more holes than a colander! Indulge me while I list but a few;
How on earth does the boy manage to look so healthy and perfect when all they have to live on is a couple of locusts a week? His skin would be sallow, his teeth would be brown, his hair lank etc etc.
How come the height marks on the door in Viggo's childhood home are still there 40 years later? Has no one ever decorated the place since?
How do they manage to find a bomb shelter, unlocked and barely concealed which just happens to be stock full of food and nice clean bedding when there have been gangs of violent men on the prowl for years taking every last crumb?
Why on Earth do they leave the aforementioned well stocked bomb shelter heading right out into the danger they believe they hear outside, instead of battening down the hatches and staying in the comfort and plentiful food? Absolutely crazy!
How on earth when they suddenly binge on all the goodies do they not vomit it straight back up? After all they are presumably suffering from moderate to severe starvation!
But how on Earth have they survived that long, on practically nothing? The boy was born when the apocalypse had already started and is about 8 or 9 years old!
When the boy catches an infection and gets a fever, how does he "just recover" from it? He would be badly malnourished and could well die of such an illness. At the very least he would be seriously ill for a long time.
The whole thing is just a series of badly thought through, lazy vignettes and set pieces on which to hang some semi-profound cloth-eared metaphysics and father-son bonding, survival through love, blah di blah.
And that ending is just cheese city! Not only is it absurdly 'convenient' that at the very moment his dad dies, the only decent people in the entire film suddenly turn up, as if by magic, to rescue him. But the final shot virtually has the bloody dog smiling! It's like some happy families, Kodak moment.
Deary me! I just couldn't wait for it to end!
What a disappointment! From the first minutes I thought to myself 'with all this bleakness it's going to be jolly hard to keep the interest going'. Well, quite! I was bored after half an hour. I found that try as I might, I just couldn't seem to care for either of them, or what happened to them. But the worst of it is that it has more holes than a colander! Indulge me while I list but a few;
How on earth does the boy manage to look so healthy and perfect when all they have to live on is a couple of locusts a week? His skin would be sallow, his teeth would be brown, his hair lank etc etc.
How come the height marks on the door in Viggo's childhood home are still there 40 years later? Has no one ever decorated the place since?
How do they manage to find a bomb shelter, unlocked and barely concealed which just happens to be stock full of food and nice clean bedding when there have been gangs of violent men on the prowl for years taking every last crumb?
Why on Earth do they leave the aforementioned well stocked bomb shelter heading right out into the danger they believe they hear outside, instead of battening down the hatches and staying in the comfort and plentiful food? Absolutely crazy!
How on earth when they suddenly binge on all the goodies do they not vomit it straight back up? After all they are presumably suffering from moderate to severe starvation!
But how on Earth have they survived that long, on practically nothing? The boy was born when the apocalypse had already started and is about 8 or 9 years old!
When the boy catches an infection and gets a fever, how does he "just recover" from it? He would be badly malnourished and could well die of such an illness. At the very least he would be seriously ill for a long time.
The whole thing is just a series of badly thought through, lazy vignettes and set pieces on which to hang some semi-profound cloth-eared metaphysics and father-son bonding, survival through love, blah di blah.
And that ending is just cheese city! Not only is it absurdly 'convenient' that at the very moment his dad dies, the only decent people in the entire film suddenly turn up, as if by magic, to rescue him. But the final shot virtually has the bloody dog smiling! It's like some happy families, Kodak moment.
Deary me! I just couldn't wait for it to end!