Monday, January 04, 2010

The Road

Turk and I saw The Road today. We'd both read the book, which is utterly harrowing; almost unremittingly bleak. Cormac McCarthy managed to find new depths in a sub-genre that most writers, critics and readers thought had been mined out by 1960. It brought me to tears more than once.

How could such a book be filmed?

I have no idea. Yet it was done: the movie is a faithful, well-cast, emotionally painful adaptation of the book. They did add a musical soundtrack...but the film would have been too terrifying and heart-wrenching to watch without it.

At the end, credits roll by on a black screen with a soundtrack behind it, a very ordinary series of sounds that, suddenly, are impossibly poignant. For me, the film was a reminder of just how short, how tragically short, "forever" is.

Go see it. Bring a hankie.

4 comments:

perlhaqr said...

I'm personally looking forward to "Book of Eli" coming out in 10 days.

Kevin said...

I don't think I want to pay $9 plus another $10 for popcorn and cola to be depressed, thanks.

Roberta X said...

Um, believe it or not, you prolly won't be.

Ken said...

I want to see it, and I have a feeling it's going to be like American History X or United 93: "Great movie (note: said without irony). Don't ever want to see it again."