The Road is probably one of the most breathtakingly beautiful pieces of literature I have ever read. That it is about the end of the world and humanity literally eating itself says a lot more about Cormac McCarthy’s skill than anything. I never thought that The Road should be made into a movie, but after the success of No Country For Old Men, I wasn’t surprised to see it happened. Directed by The Proposition’s John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, I still didn’t think that this story could translate into anything, though I desperately wanted it to. So after coming out of the theater into the crisp night air, I found myself not just content with this film, it affected me.

This is not the story of the end of the world. We do not know why the world is dying, just that it is. It is not about the last remnant of humanity in the throws of desperation and starvation. We do know that most have turned cannibalism and paranoia. It is a story of a father and a son, both without names played by Mortensen and newcomer Kodi McPhee respectively. They are heading south for the beach, being chased doggedly by a worsening winter and ravenous gangs looking for the only fresh meat available. They live off scraps of remaining food, skinny and affected by malnutrition.

The father is trying to teach the boy how to survive without turning towards cannibalism, to live by righteousness even as his own is constantly being tested as they come closer and closer to various perils. The film doesn’t have much of an overlying arc so to say, but episodes that lead them closer and closer to the beach and to their destiny. The man has flashbacks to his wife (Charlize Theron) and a life before the world went to hell. This is a man who wishes he could lie down and die but is afraid to leave his son alone in the world and refuses to let him die, too.

This leads me to a question that I find myself wondering; if there is no hope for the world’s redemption, would the man’s decision to keep himself and his son be more out of arrogance than love? It’s not because of any moral standing as the first thing we see the man teach his son is how to take his own life if it looks as though cannibals might get to him. Perhaps some people are just plain stubborn not to lie down and die, to fight with their very last breath for life, no matter how much pain would be in that life. There is something beautiful in that arrogance in my opinion, but let’s not mistaken it for anything else.

This is a truly amazing production that really does give us something unique and thoughtful to consider in an apocalypse. Compared to the wild ride of 2012, The Road is more of a stroll with a few exciting moments to keep things interesting. Most of the events go along with the novel with very few deviations. One thing that the movie does that I’m not sure really works well in it’s favor is the use of voice-overs. While done pretty well, I think it might have worked well without them as Mortensen’s face carries more powerful expressions than his voice could ever do.

Speaking of Viggo Mortensen, I find myself more and more his fan with every film role he takes. This is a very different character from those he has done before and yet he plays this one with such authority that we feel this man with no name’s fear and hope and determination. Director Hillcoat wisely allows Mortensen’s face and body language to be in main focus allowing this to be our gateway into this forbidding environment. And this is while Mortensen is underplaying the role. And he gives graciously to Kodi McPhee, who is just about as fine an actor as those he plays against. In the novel, the boy is a wide-eyed innocent. Here, he’s sweet and caring, but also weary. There is a small part for Robert Duvall as an old man whom they meet later on and this is probably one of my favorite scenes as it allows all three actors to really show their chops and to play off each other. I hope Duvall gets the sort of attention that William Hurt got for A History of Violence.

Director John Hillcoat here shows that he’s no wilting daisy, but a lion capable of going for broke in technique and storytelling. This is one of the hardest books to adapt and he along with screenwriter Joe Penhall find the way to tell this story by focusing on a man and his son the same way that Umberto D and The Bicycle Thief focused their tragic stories on such relationships. The photography and production design again is minimalist and yet does more to provide us with a real-world location that all those hundreds of millions of dollars on 2012 couldn’t do.

All in all, The Road is unlike anything I have seen in some time and one that I cannot recommend enough to those who are capable of accepting such a bleak premise. Not that I would expect you to watch it again. When you see millions of people facing death, it’s spectacle. When you see two people facing death constantly, it’s harrowing. Even if you don’t know their names.