It’s the end of the world as we know it…and Viggo Mortensen isn’t feeling fine.
Between this summer’s Terminator Salvation, Shane Acker’s just-released 9 and Roland Emmerich’s upcoming 2012, Hollywood seems to be obsessed with the Apocalypse these days. But the best film that could emerge from this current trend is The Road, a big-screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy (who also wrote No Country for Old Men, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film by the Coen Brothers). Directed by John Hillcoat, the film takes place ten years after an unspecified disaster transforms America into a desolate, sunless wasteland. Any semblance of civilization has long since disappeared and the few remaining survivors now fall into two categories: the hunters or the hunted. McCarthy’s story follows two of the hunted, a father and son (Viggo Mortensen and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee), making the long trek to the coast while avoiding the roving bands of thieves and cannibals that patrol the main roads. Based on the trailer, the movie looks like a faithful translation of McCarthy’s bleak and often horrifying book and also features supporting performances from Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and The Wire‘s Michael K. Williams. Look for The Road in theaters on October 16.
