The Road: DVD Review

The Road: DVD Review

The Road

Rating: R16
Released by Warner Home Video

In the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are journeying across America after the world ended in some unknown way.

(Though it appears to have been nuclear)

As they head south at the urging of the father's wife (Charlize Theron) and search for food, shelter and fuel, the duo meet all manner of problems - thieves, cannibals, and worst of all, their own paranoia and fears.

Against a backdrop of a devastated planet, survivors who are reduced to horrendous scavenging ways to get by and an ever increasing cold front, the duo find themselves unable to escape the inexorable physical and mental horrors which surround them.

To describe The Road as compellingly bleak may seem a little odd - but when you have a film which finds the worst that men can do and has a protagonist who would rather shoot his only son to avoid him being eaten alive, it's clearly not a laugh riot.

But yet, this film is intellectually stimulating watching as the events unfold - it's all wonderfully underplayed which adds to the horror -and thanks to the great performances of Mortensen and Smit-
Phee, this is riveting and terrifyingly good.

Extras: Behind the scenes featurettes and a gallery.

Rating: 8/10