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Cinema GPS

By derek ⋅ February 4, 2009 ⋅ ⋅ commentellen

Someone please invent one so I can get a bead on a cemented release date for The Road. Cormac McCarthy’s novel was my last-minute companion two Christmases ago, a perfect antipode to holiday cheer and one of the few reads in recent memory that I had difficulty putting down. John Hillcoat’s filmic treatment has been sequestered in post-production limbo since it missed its initial release date last November. Dimension Film’s been pretty much mum aside from dropping vague hints about “Oscar-worthy” performances. A dozen or so stills have been floating around the net offering tantalizing glimpses or vexing harbingers depending on ones perspective. I’m personally leaning more toward the former. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee look suitably haggard and hollow-eyed in the roles of Man and Boy and the location shoots in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Louisiana appear to have yielded real post-apocalyptic fruit. I’m a little disappointed that director didn’t go for high saturation black & white, but the anemic color scheme of washed out earth tones works decently well in its stead. The elaboration of the Wife’s (played by Charlize Theron) back-story also has me a bit worried. A trailer hasn’t even dropped yet. Not a good sign. And anyway, the upcoming Todd Field treatment of Blood Meridian seems far better bait for trepidation and ire. To truly do that novel justice in transfer of page to screen an absence of rating seems unavoidable.