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The Road



I liked this movie, though it did have it's faults, the most glaring of which was the acting of the little boy. I have seen a lot of praise given to him in almost every review I've read, and I don't get it. I'm sure it was a tough role, and I don't expect much from child actors, but he did a pretty poor job. I'm not gonna fault the actor, because he's just a kid and he clearly did the best he could do, but it really brought the movie down and I don't know why it's praised so much. It didn't help that his character was kind of annoying, but I'm not quite sure if that was more the writing or the acting. Apparently writing post-apocalyptic children is really hard, because I've never seen it done right. I know it was intentional, but this kid seemed way too soft, and it just got annoying. It almost made me yearn for Carl from The Walking Dead, who is the exact opposite, and who I usually can't stand. Also, Viggo Mortnensen and Robert Duvall were both great, and Charlize Theron was fine.

Also, the movie had very little emotional impact. I don't think it was as powerful as it was trying to be, and I think it relied a bit too much on the fact that we would find all of it inherently sad, which it was, but it wasn't enough. WIth that said, I never felt like it was forcing emotion on to me at all, and it felt kind of nice. It was almost unintentionally light-hearted in a really depressing sort of way. Even when I thought a scene should have been really sad or powerful, I just never felt anything. I did loved the gray color scheme, which was more powerful than anything else in the movie. I'm not quite sure what made me like the movie as much as I did. I guess I just found it interesting or something, but I can't even think of a time throughout the film that I felt especially interested, and none of it really felt new or original after watching The Walking Dead. It obviously wasn't "fun," but maybe I just had a good time watching it. Maybe I just liked watching their journey, even if I never really cared what happened, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. Maybe not being emotionally involved in an inherently depressing movie is a good thing. Whatever the reason is, this was a good movie.


3.9/5








7th Viggo Mortensen
LOTR trilogy, 28 Days, A History of Violence, Hidalgo
2nd Robert Duvall
Secondhand Lions
3rd Charlize Theron
Hancock, The Italian Job
3rd Guy Pearce
Memento, LA Confidential