As we noted last week in a piece that suggests Dimension films might be trying to fuck with tweak the trailer, Esquire’s Tom Chiarella has seen the John Hillcoat directed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s long-delayed, “The Road.”
It’s only one man’s opinion obviously, but the Esquire scribe calls the film, “the most important film of the year” (or at least that’s the headline of the piece; sadly, it’s not online yet), and more importantly that’s gloriously high plaudits for a film that previously received mediocre, test-screening audience thoughts and then was delayed, and then pushed back almost a year (all of which did not bode well).
Throughout the piece, Chiarella suggest “The Road,” is pretty amazing, but hard to watch. “You won’t want to see this one twice,” he writes. But it sounds like the good kind of, “you don’t want to see twice,” as in, so emotionally flooring, you’ll be spent and won’t want to go there again. To us that sounds rather incredible and pretty much what we want.
“You should see it for the simplest reasons: because it is a good story, not because it may be important. Not because it is unforgettable, unyielding. Not because it horrifies. Not because the score is creepily spiritual. Not because it is littered with small lines of dialogue you will remember later. Not because it contains warnings against our own demise. All of that is so. 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 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 son, and in that way, it’s more like a remake of ‘The Godfather’ than some echo of ‘I Am Legend.’ “
We’re not going to type up the entire piece, sorry, but you need to track it down and read it. The scene describing Viggo Mortensen and his son played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, quietly, sadly, staring at a burning forest, sounds utterly devastating. “Sounds awful, because it goddamned well is. But it’s awful, too as in full of awe. Awful as you cannot avert your gaze. It’s hard not to watch a fire,” he writes. Jesus, sign us up right frigging’ now.
It sounds like a difficult, almost emotionally disturbing film to get through, but lord, go for broke, that’s what we want! Do not change hair on its head Weinsteins, please! (read what Chiarella said when we asked him why they were trying to possibly sell a trailer that was what he called, potentially, “misleading”).
Ok, so now we’re like excited as school boys. We wrote the Esquire writer and asked what he thought of its chances for Oscar. He admitted he was no expert, but here’s his thoughts nonetheless (find the piece, read it).
“On the Oscar thing– I don’t know. I never like the movies that win the Oscar. Never. So I just decided not to try to predict [ed. this is probably a good thing to determine his taste]. I would say this. The movie made me feel sick at heart, and I think about it still, all these months later. Frankly I have my doubts that enough people will embrace it– it is hard to watch. I think it is the kind of movie people might walk out on, the kind of movie people will argue about. I don’t know if that’s the kind of movie that can win best picture. I think Viggo might get a ‘nod’ and the guy from ‘The Wire,’ who’s on screen for about three minutes as the thief, well, he stole the show [Micheal K. Williams]. I would bet on Robert Duvall as supporting actor if I wanted to win money. Short answer: if it were up to me, it would be on the short list at very least.”
Dear lord, grant us a trailer soon. “The Road” opens in theaters October 16.
