The Road, the movie. Where Viggo Mortensen gets the chance to let it all hang out.
As The Man, in the grim adaptation of the equally grim novel by Cormac McCarthy, Mortensen sheds all for a rear-view nude scene. (If it’s a frontal view of Mortensen’s man meat you’re hankerin’ fer, try Eastern Promises.) In The Road, Mortensen wades out into a cold pond, his boys swinging sweet low chariot. Of course, this begs the question, why haven’t his jewels climbed north to warmer climes? But The Road, movie and novel, both suffer from a worse factual problem.
The premise of the story is that some sort of global disaster, read “apocalypse,” has destroyed all life on earth except humans. Therein lies the problem. Look, there’s no doubt humans are tough. But if it’ll wipe out rats, flies and cockroaches, it’ll do the same to humans. (The movie makes a pathetic attempt to right this, showing a couple of animals toward the end of the movie.)
(Of course, the explanation some might prefer is that this is literally a biblical apocalypse, where a twisted, vengeful god has destroyed all, leaving his favorite creations to suffer. [Nice god you’ve got there.])
The plot follows The Man and The Boy as they follow a road across a scorched and desolate landscape; their destination the warmer south, presumably. As adaptations go, it’s not bad. I mean, given Hollywood’s need to “commercial” things up, it’s a small wonder the story didn’t morph into one featuring a nubile, tween couple who fight vampires on the barren landscape. (If anything, the adaptation is too faithful, sticking to the novel’s out-of-place, happy hopeful ending.)
The novel begins with the unfolding of the mystery of the characters’ relationship, revealing the Man’s devotion to his son through his self-sacrifice. The movie feels its audience is too stupid for nuance and begins with a voice-over (Mortensen’s) at the onset, telling the viewer that the world has gone to shit and the Boy is his raison d’etre, his god upon the road, blah, blah, blah.
What’s left is a saga of a man and his incredibly whiny son. And can that kid whine. Yeah, I get it. He’s a child. The problem is this child was born into a harsh and brutal world. He’s not your average middle class kid raised in the comfy suburbs. As my husband observed, “This kid’s not going to live long.”
But the Man, in print and on screen, isn’t the brightest light bulb either. He routinely blunders into one clearly dangerous situation after another. “Look, a town where dangerous people could be hiding. Let’s go take a look. In broad daylight. Oh, lookie! An abandoned farmhouse that looks suspiciously inhabited. Let’s go creep around the cellar.”
As movies go, The Road is relatively well made, and Mortensen did his best to get into the part, including getting down to a skeletal weight. The movie is exquisitely bleak and true to McCathy’s vision. There are moments of genuine dread and suspense. But the filmmaker’s heavy-handed approach to exposition dulls the story’s one bright spot–a father’s love for his child.
(Edited to correct spelling of Mortensen’s last name.)
