The Road

Greetings once again!

Apparently this was the week for post apocolyptic darkness. The Road stars Viggo Mortensen as the dad who is travelling with his son through an ashy and depressing America in the throes of trying to survive on a dead planet. Thankfully they steered away from the mother earth tree hugging political correctness that they COULD have thrown in there in the name of responsibly managing what's left of our currently failing eco system. Are you driving an SUV or anything bigger than a Hot Wheels? Than you're single handedly responsible for destroying our planet you selfish republican! How dare you! I'm going to fly around in my private jet and hold tent meetings and make a documentary about how oil companies, gas engines, and the last administration have damned this planet to death by their self absorbed commercialism. Oh, hey, take the H3 and get me a Dew and some deep fried jo-jo's at the mini mart there. And a bag of chips in a non bio-degradable bag. and an apple. and this month's Vogue. and a plastic bottle of water that will take 1,000,000,000 years to degrade. and a cigar. On second thought, forget the apple. I've got a plane to catch!!!!!

Anyway, Viggo Mortensen was Aaragorn. Just for reference if you didn't know. AND if you don't know who Aaragorn is, what are you doing reading this? You should be reading the greatest trilogy written in the last 1.5 trillion years. In fact, evolution brought the art of writing to the point it did so that the Lord of The Rings could be written. Look it up, it's true.

Back to The Road. The story focuses on the relationship between the father and the son in a world where what's left of mankind has devolved into horrific violence and cannibalism. The dad is sick and trying to raise his son to be able to go on and survive when he is gone. They have a gun with two bullets left in it. They are trying to get south in the hopes of finding some warmth and something liveable. You would not believe how depressing and dark and sorrowful this movie is. You thought the Book of Eli was dark? Not compared to this. The Road takes dark to a whole new level. The Road packs dark up in a wooden crate wrapped in insulation, wheels it into an elevator and takes it down through the basement into the pit of despair. On the way it cuts the cables and watches dark plummet to the depth of despondency. When it crashes there and the crate bursts open in your brain your left saddened and wondering, what the bleep was the point of that! You actually wonder it so vehemently that it's an exclamation, not a question. Almost like you're personally offended at the auther for writing this.

The point of the story is threefold, I THINK. That the boy is innocent and represents the possibility that mankind can become human again. HOPE. That the dad's paranoia, though safe, actually turns out to be detrimental in several instances. TRUST. And that every son must come to the place that he must say goodbye to his father and strike out on his own road. GROWTH.

Not bad points, right? I poop on these good points. The mere glimmer of hope right at the very end is so faint that you may as well slip the noose over your head or bite the barrell or open the vein or swallow the mayonaise or however you choose to end you. The movie did enough to make me interested in the characters and then rip my heart out of my chest at the end. The issue with this movie isn't the writing, the dialogue and skill and small moments between the dad and son were actually very well written and impacting. That's what made the end seem so hopeless. I won't tell you the end, stop asking.

The Road. Don't watch it if you battle depression. Don't watch it if you love a happy ending. Don't watch it if you have a weak stomach. Don't watch it if you have daddy issues. Don't watch it if you're with your wife. Watch it if you dare.