Slashing The Seats

2009 may well be remembered as the year of the apocalypse – cinematically at least, and despite strong (not to mention patently ridiculous) bids from Zombieland and 2012, The Road is the literary pinnacle of the years filmic lust for devastation. Based on a Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer winning novel, Proposition director Hillcoat has a stellar cast, and manages to pull off a literate, messagey Sci-Fi meltdown without ever coming across as portentous or overblown.

The key here, as in fellow not-quite-as-good Armageddoner Carriers, is focus on characters, rather than the actual disaster. Vague voiceovers and half-rememberings inform us that the world went down in a blaze and that’s it, no further explanation offered or required as we join a grimly convincing Viggo Mortenson on a trip through a downright terrifying landscape.

The aesthetic is disturbing, but its minimalist depiction of ravaged, grey landscapes and nuclear winter is nothing compared to the depths plumbed by the few survivors, and it’s in this examination of the darkness lurking in the hearts of men that Hillcoat finds himself on familiar ground and truly excels. This isn’t to say the director is ploughing familiar territory, as Mortenson’s unnamed father sees death and destruction at every turn, his son takes a more optimistic path. Where the father searches for food and water, his son seeks companionship – questioning which is more important for true survival.

As the lonely duo make their way across the battered landscape, scant flashbacks show Viggo and his dead wife making the decision to go through with the birth of their child, despite the prevailing possibility of destruction, weighing up options of suicide before settling on creating, rather than destroying new life. There are a few uneasy notes in the message – already being adopting for the pro-life cause in some quarters – and the obvious focus on various brand names may raise the odd misplaced hackle, here the very mundanity of a Coke can highlights the pervading sense of loss-while also providing a vague sense that the future may provide a better way. While the older generation becomes ever more cynical and brutal, there’s an optimistic bent to younger characters.

At times unforgiving, the movie never the less leaves the viewer with a cautiously enlightened mood that should carry over well with the Academy crowd come awards season.

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