Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee
3.5 out of 5 stars

“The Road” is the closest thing to cinematic shock and awe any movie could ever hope for. No jaw is left shut, and no emotion is untouched — especially anger, sadness and despair.

Directed by John Hillcoat and based off Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road” successfully throws down the gauntlet for some of the bleakest and morally depraved cinema recently released. Its mood is somber and its events are foreboding, but beyond the initial shadow lies an unlikely love story and a father and son’s quest for redemption in a world gone to hell.

The film begins when an unnamed man (Viggo Mortensen) awakes from a dream, and the audience is introduced to a post apocalyptic wasteland.

From what we can infer, he and his son (Kodi Smitt-McPhee) have been traveling through abandoned roads for a little more than a year in search of food and survivors.

The climate is frigid. The landscape is barren, and almost all life has been extinguished because of an unknown cataclysm. It’s depressing, but the promise of reaching shore seems to be enough incentive to trudge on.

Along the way, the father and son are pitted against hordes of cannibals, thieves and starvation on a massive scale. There’s a catch though: The father has a gun, but only two useable bullets. The problem here lies in the decision of using the bullets on their enemies or, if the situation becomes hopeless enough, themselves.

Mortensen does a nice job buying into the melancholy without being too melodramatic. Generally, he keeps the character true its literary roots in McCarthy’s novel.

Likewise, Smit-McPhee did an exceptional job. He played his part well without being overly cute and sentimental, as actors of his age usually do.

In flashback scenes, we observe conversation between the man and his former wife (Charlize Theron), back in brighter, more vibrant times. As a whole, this subplot may not have truly added anything to the movie, but it did offer a break from the constant barrage of stark imagery.

What really came through, however, was the placed importance on childhood innocence. The young boy’s selfless acts of kindness toward strangers were often met with intense bursts of happiness and gratitude, even when circumstances hit rock bottom.

Perhaps it was Hillcoat’s intention that in a world empty of all morality, the only true salvation comes from the inherent goodness of a child.

Other scenes in “The Road” offer a brilliant insight on the utterly visceral and barbaric instincts of man when the bare necessities of life are stripped away.

The portrayal of human cannibalism and ruthless killing sends chills down to the bone. In an almost animalistic fashion, heartless men capture woman and children and shoot them in cold blood as a means of sustenance. The haunting imagery here stays with the viewer long after the credits have rolled.

Such imagery is coupled with a cinematic style that rivals the bleakness of Gore Verbinski’s “The Ring.” Scenes throughout the movie lean toward grays, pale blues and greens, and overall dark colors to express the hopelessness and eeriness of the settings.

While “The Road” falls just shy of Cormac McCarthy’s other film adaptation (“No Country for Old Men”), John Hillcoat succeeds in one thing: Capturing the overall essence of McCarthy’s characters and imagery.

You will no doubt leave “The Road” saddened, but there is something beautiful in knowing that love can outlast even the end of the world.

Reach the reporter at dane.jarvie@asu.edu