Word: hillcoat
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...fact that the movie was originally slated for release last autumn and bounced around this fall's schedule before landing in Thanksgiving week suggests that the questions stumped the marketing professionals as well. But if Hillcoat--best known for his Australian outlaw tale The Proposition--and screenwriter Joe Penhall felt any pressure to temper the novel's agonies, they shrugged it off. Their Road is respectful of McCarthy's glumness, and they have made no effort to soften the despair...
...Hillcoat does make one important addition to the story: flashbacks to what life was like when the Woman (Charlize Theron) was still alive. They weren't good times--the world was well on the way to environmental ruin--but at least the Man still had a partner. Theron's presence may be a nod to producers who wanted a female star in the picture, but it's not entirely successful in terms of adhering to McCarthy's intent. Theron is graceful as always, but meeting the Woman only makes her absence more troubling and alters our relationship with...
Visually, Hillcoat and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe play an established post-apocalyptic trick and drain the color from the once-lush forests and mountains that play host to the first half of the story. Only two things interrupt the film’s monochromatic palette: blood and fire, both of which are shot in horribly sharp relief. But Hillcoat and Aguirresarobe refuse to let their limited color range get in the way of shooting a strikingly desolate film, filled with a series of images that seem destined to become iconic. Father and son stumble down a warped concrete road, shattered telephone...
Director John Hillcoat and actor Viggo Mortensen have both made their names with dark, gritty films: Hillcoat with Nick Cave-scripted Western “The Proposition,” Mortensen with a pair of David Cronenberg thrillers, “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.” It is tempting, then, to suggest that with “The Road,” a bleak, post-apocalyptic travelogue, both men are sticking to what they know...
Though the film’s bleak beauty may distract momentarily, it doesn’t take long to realize that it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. But Hillcoat has created a road narrative without the ever-present forward motion that usually defines it. Instead, “The Road” is composed of fleeting moments, vignettes that slowly coalesce into a fuller picture of the characters and their experiences. Father and son run from bandits, enjoy an unopened, still-carbonated Coca-Cola, and eat canned fruit with an elderly fellow traveler, all the while...