I’ve said a thousand times before that one of the top 5 movies that I’m dying to see this year is the adaptation of one of the greatest books I’ve ever read, THE ROAD. Once again, I invite you to check out the novel by author Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) who painted the post apocalyptic world in the most beautiful and harrowing literature style you’ll ever come across. A gritty, sad, and courageous story about a father and a son that The Weinstein is finally going to bring to the big screen this year after having been previously postponed. My concern is that it will open on the same weekend as Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, October 16th, 2009. People might choose to miss out on what could be the next Oscar contender for Best Picture.
But check this out, some lucky bastard named Tom Chiarella of Esquire has seen the movie. I’d give my left nut to be in his shoes right now. Recently I shared with you THR’s review of Angels & Demons because I was hella curious to know if Ron Howard does Dan Brown justice this time or screws things up again like he did The Da Vinci Code.
And now, let’s take a glance at some excerpts from Chiarella’s (lucky SOB) review of THE ROAD, shall we..
Everything about the film seems disconnected in this way — shocky and post-traumatic.
When they do move, the father and the son progress through a quietly seething dream, a world at its end. When they run from danger, they clank and rustle and seem wetly destined to never get away. When the father grips the boy’s mouth to quiet him, it is too rough.
The Road is no tease. It is a brilliantly directed adaptation of a beloved novel, a delicate and anachronistically loving look at the immodest and brutish end of us all. You want them to get there, you want them to get there, you want them to get there — and yet you do not want it, any of it, to end.
You should see it for the simplest of reasons: Because it is a good story. Not because it may be important.
Don’t see it just because you loved the book. The movie stands alone. Go see it because it’s two small people set against the ugly backdrop of the world undone. A story without guarantees. In every moment — even the last one — you’ll want to know what happens next, even if you can hardly stand to look. Because The Road is a story about the persistence of love between a father and a son, and in that way it’s more like a remake of The Godfather than some echo of I Am Legend.
That last part sounds ballsy… describing THE ROAD as the remake of The Godfather, it must’ve been quite a movie, wow!
If that’s the case, then this could be the movie that become the next monumental achievement, a milestone that would be admired and cherished for generations to come, something that Soderbergh has been waiting for.
I like how Chiarella made his review sound like you’re reading McCarthy’s novel all over again.
In a way, I’m glad THE ROAD didn’t open last year because Slumdog Millionaire wouldn’t stand a chance against it.
