Word: book
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...film was directed by the award-winning documentarian Adrian Pennink, who also directed Ferguson’s previous film, which was based on his book “Empire: The Rise and the Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power...
...attention is directed away from the road narrative and towards the big ideas that constitute the film’s core. But viewers who haven’t read the source material may be left somewhat bewildered by the vaguely serialized, disjointed final product. McCarthy’s book, as spare and angular as it was, remained a cohesive, plot-driven whole. Hillcoat’s film seeks to distill the novel’s essence, and in the process loses some of the details that would keep an uninitiated audience engaged. (Given how well the film works...
...fragmentation of the film is furthered by its one major deviation from McCarthy’s book: the inclusion of a number of flashbacks. Featuring Charlize Theron as Mortensen’s wife—a character who appeared only referentially in the book—these scenes show the gradual unraveling of their family as the mysterious crisis unfolds outside shuttered windows...
...puts them on the edge of their seats for the remainder of the film. “The Road” employs a similar effect; following a span of wandering, father and son come upon a disconcertingly civilized-looking house, which they are drawn to investigate. Readers of the book know exactly what's coming, which only makes it worse. Another memorable scene features Michael K. Williams, best known as Omar from “The Wire.” With all of five minutes of screen time, Williams blows the rest of the cast away as a pathetic thief...
...Road” is a flawed film but a great one, brutally affecting and finally, unexpectedly, uplifting. It crystallizes our greatest fears about our own capabilities into a truly original and discomfiting vision of the world, and it very nearly does McCarthy’s book justice. Viewers may leave the theater not entirely sure what they just witnessed, but “The Road” will stick with them, as will the pressing questions it poses...