It is hard to out into words just how breathtaking ‘The Road’ is. As a movie it stands out as one of the best films made in the past 10 years and though a very dark and creepy topic at times the film manages to allow its two central characters to rise about all that giving you the feeling of hope in the chaos that is this post apocalyptic world.
After ‘No Country for Old Men’ success at the oscars and the Coen Brothers finally getting rewarded for a passionate and mesmerising epic along comes John Hillcoat’s The Road. The movie is very clever in that it doesn’t give away any of it’s secrets and don’t go into this film thinking you are going to see a lot of CGI special effects and a destruction of the world – this has been done many times over and looks cheap and lifeless. Though the sets are big and there is plenty to take in Hillcoat is more subtle in giving you the end of the world and we only get a small look into the lives of the characters before ‘it’ happens.
And within the first five minutes your in this grey/brown world of death and . No law. No order. And no real chance of surviving. Viggo Morgensen plays the father or ‘pappa’ and the more you watch him on screen the more you feel
The relationship between Kodi Smit-McPhee (the boy) and Mortensen is a beautiful bout of casting. At only 13 the Australian manages to keep up to Mortensen’s pace. In some of the scenes a pure innocence comes from both actors that it will leave you a little breathless as the power of their performances is only aided it seems by a director
The graphic scenes in which we see, or hear, the horror of this post apocalyptic earth, are done more to show the viewer what has become of mankind rather than to be exploitative or overly graphic. Other than the man and boy few other characters feature, you will see and hear them in small parts of the film but the majority of it is left to the two main characters. Charlize Theron who also features in the film only appears in the flashback segments and her character is cold, sad, and tired. To date I would count this as one of Theron’s best performances.
The more the man and boy travel to the coast more more destruction we see and that also forms part of the frustration I felt. Though I did not want to see a big flashy end of world scene but the wide collapse of all things social leaves you wanting to know just a little bit more. The movie, and rightly so, doesn’t give any timeline but from the flashbacks and age of the boy you get the sense that this has been going on for over 11 years, possibly 12. In one of the most touching scenes the man gives the boy a soda and he has no idea what it is, the look on his face is as though that was the first time he had had a soda.
As for the tension scenes there are none. We as the view know what would happen to them if they where caught so there was no over the top capture and rescue scenes and you only really get one confrontation scene and anymore than that then this would have ruined the narrative.
The road is a masterpiece of new American cinema. It very skilfully lifts so carefully from McCarthy’s book and pitting one of the finest American actors (in the truest sense of the word) with a child actor portrayed maturity, class, and the ability to step up to the challenge was inspired. Movies are not made like this and to witness this is to really see a true cinematic moment, this movie will by the years end become a modern classic.
Viggo Mortensen & Charlize Theron star in John Hillcoat’s The Road adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name and follows on the success of the Cohn brothers Oscar winning epic No Country for Old Men. The Road follows an unnamed father and son who are journeying together toward the sea across a post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and almost all life on Earth.
The setting is extremely bleak; the sun is obscured by a layer of ash so thick that the pair must breathe through masks, and plants don’t grow. The surviving remnants of humanity have been largely reduced to violence and cannibalism. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their present location, the father leads them through this desolate landscape towards the sea, sustained by a vague hope of finding other “good people” like them.
Overwhelmed by this desperate and apparently hopeless situation, the boy’s mother, pregnant with him at the time of the cataclysm, has committed suicide some time before the story begins. The father coughs blood every morning and knows he is dying. He struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation, as well as from what he sees as the boy’s innocently well-meaning but dangerous desire to help the other wanderers they meet.
They carry a pistol with two bullets, meant for protection or suicide if necessary. In the face of all of these obstacles, the man and the boy have only each other. The man maintains the pretense, and the boy holds on to the real faith, that there is a core of ethics left somewhere in humanity.
The Road, directed by John Hillcoat and Starring Viggo Mortensen & Charlize Theron is showing at the Duke of York Cinema form 8th January 2010
ONE OF THE MOST surprising movies of 2009 was Lee Daniels ‘Precious’ which once is was release slowly started to gain festival attention and not surprisingly winning a whole host of awards. And as the real award season is upon us both main starts Gabourey Sidibe (in her movie debut) & Mo’nique are both nominated for best actress and supporting actress respectively at this years Golden Globes and the movie is also nominated for Best Film Drama.
“Precious” won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including a special jury prize for Mo’Nique, who plays Precious’s monstrous mother. Graphic as the film is, it is less so than “Push,” the 1996 novel on which it is based. Written by an African-American poet and writer known as Sapphire, “Push” relied on intentionally misspelled, broken and slangy English to convey Precious’s sense of despair and rage.
The novel mixes poems by Precious with sexually extreme scenes, like those in which she is forced to perform oral sex on her mother. It is almost relentlessly bleak: when Precious discovers she is H.I.V. positive, she is certain of her imminent death. Daniels’s movie, by contrast, offers a greater sense of possibility. He doesn’t ignore her disease, hardships or struggles, but he also liberates her from them. Precious is a stand-in for anyone — black, white, male, female — who has ever been devalued or underestimated.
There is big talk going on now about both main actors getting Oscar nominations and it’s not hard to see why. Precious will be playing at Duke of York form 29th January 2010.
It would be to easy to try and make out that The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is the most perfect film and that it’s star is a magnificent in a spellbinding actor with no peer. Easy I say because since Heath has died his inner being, that character that shapes us all, has been given the golden Hollywood treatment which is always saved for the you greats who leave them.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus doesn’t help much to soak up the loss the acting world has had with Ledgers’ passing. This film has it’s faults, the script is not as tight as it should be and the storyline goes in an odd direction at times that leaves you feeling a little unsure, but above all there is something this film has that few will ever be able to touch and that’s simply and incredible cast and great location.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus does what it means to do from it’s title which is full of fable and adventure, and the film delivers x10. Christopher Plummer plays a trickster showman (and drunk) in contemporary London, putting on acts with the aid of young Anton (Andrew Garfield from Boy A & Lions for Lambs), his loyal friend Percy (Verne Troyer in one of his finest performances to date) and his beautiful daughter Valentina (Lily Cole in her amazing major role debut). Their seemingly shabby shows involve antiquated tableaux that conceal the real deal: unsuspecting audience members are pulled onstage and sent through a magical mirror into a gleaming, surreal other world.
But it’s a desperate game. You discover as a young monk many centuries ago Parnassus made a pact with the devilish Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), and thus began a centuries-long battle of wits and bets in which Parnassus is granted powers – immortality and the ability to guide the imaginations of others – but at great cost to himself and risk to his daughter. When the troupe rescues Tony (Ledger) from a London Bridge, he joins their tottering sideshow, but he may not be who they hope he is. And now Mr. Nick is back to collect a debt and in doing so sets up the ‘final’ bet between him and Parnassus.
Though the script at times might seem weak the performances are beyond perfect and will, at times am sure, leave you feeling a little sorry for ever doubting that a ‘supermodel’ could act or that Troyer could put in a mature, honest, and worthy performance needs to see this film and understand. The movie gained a great deal of attention because of Ledgers’ death and the fact that the film was unfinished so in steps Depp, Law & Farrell coming into finish the parts left unfinished by Ledger. Of all the ‘imagination Tony’s Depp steals the show with a subtle and warm cameo, Law is a little unbelievable but Farrell is the ONLY person that could have played the final Tony.
After watching how Gilliam had used the other actors to ‘fill the gaps left by Ledgers’ passing’ it would have been hard to have seen a completed film with Ledger as it made a great deal more sense having the three faces of Tony in the imagination than the main Tony and it worked so well. As always with a Gilliam film there seems to have been some cutbacks and restrictions which may have hurt the film slightly. You get the sense that the ‘Imaginarium’ was so much more fuller and wilder in Gilliam’s head than what the final product shows, which at times comes across a little lazy. The film being set in contemporary London is a touch a true genius mainly due to the rag and bone type show that they produce. The huge stage show they cart round with a horse sticks out and is meant to.
Gilliam has made a beautiful film, one that shows his love for being different and willing to compromise a little to much for his art to be seen. The Homebase ‘product placement’ was a little to heavy (much like Starbucks in ‘Lions for Lambs’) but you get over that. The actors give it more than you would have expected and they make the characters live, as for Ledger, he doesn’t come across like ‘a star’ and I think that was what made the performances of the other actors stand out so much and am sure it’s going to be something that they are going to remember for a long time.
Starring:Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield & Tom Waits with Johnny Depp Jude Law and Colin FarrellDir: Terry Gilliam
