"THE ROAD": CHILLING AND UNFORGETTABLE

It’s becoming difficult to tell Hollywood apart from a man with the words “The End Of The World Is Nigh” painted on his sandwich board. Between “2012”, “Terminator Salvation”, the rash of zombie pandemic movies, and even the latest children’s cartoons (“Wall-E”, “9”), the message that film-makers keep shouting is that humanity’s days are numbered. But it has never carried as much weight as it does in “The Road”, John Hillcoat’s chilling adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel.

The story is set in an America razed by an unspecified cataclysm. A widowed father, played by Viggo Mortensen, trudges through a grey-brown wasteland stripped of life. There’s no hope of salvation. All he can wish for is to keep his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) out of the hands of roving cannibals. Mortensen’s portrayal of a man ground down by hunger and hopelessness is extraordinary, and the film is a sombre yet poetic alternative to the prevailing cinematic treatment of the apocalypse as an exciting opportunity to blow up national monuments. No one who sees it will forget it. But will anyone want to see it twice?

"The Road", in cinemas in America; British release January 8th

~ NICHOLAS BARBER