A few times a year, movie goers are presented with a film that proves that not all mediums are created equal. Watchmen proved that even absolute loyalty to a graphic novel can leave something on the page and now the highly-anticipated and long-delayed debut of The Road proves that some themes are better represented in fiction than on celluloid. Cormac McCarthy's novel was a highly acclaimed and award-winning examination of survival, hope, and what happens after the end of the world. On paper, McCarthy's prose and bleak vision of the future works itself under the reader's skin, but there's a vital difference between fiction that you can jump in and out of – reading a bit of a time and digesting the thematic importance – and film. Such bleak storytelling in film merely becomes monotonous and repetitive, losing its dramatic power due to its numbing tone. I'm not sure if The Road could ever have worked on the big screen, but I am sure that this version could be used to make that case.

In a certain sense, McCarthy's fiction, including All the Pretty Horses (and the entire, fantastic Border Trilogy) and No Country for Old Men, has really always been about the end of the world. He's a writer who considers our best days as a race behind us. We're all just biding time until the apocalypse. In The Road, the apocalypse arrives. Screenwriter Joe Penhall and director John Hillcoat wisely leave out any concrete explanation as to what made most of humanity die off (although a smart theater owner would book 2012 and The Road as a twisted double feature ... the first could end and then a title card would read "Meanwhile...." before going into the second.) We see in flashbacks that our hero (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) were once joined by a mother (Charlize Theron), riding out the dark days after the horizon turned to fire. The nameless mother turned away from her family, walking off into her certain death, and left her husband and son to wander the physical and metaphorical road, just trying to stay alive.

The Road is mostly an episodic series of encounters in which "The Man" and "The Boy" try to stay alive long enough to get to the coast. What will happen there? Who knows but they must keep moving past cannibals (including Garret Dillahunt), thieves (Michael Kenneth Williams of The Wire), and old men (an effective cameo by Robert Duvall). Even when they find a bunker filled with food, the threat of cannibals nearby forces them to move on. The world of The Road isn't just dark, it's cruel. The man and boy find a house that seems to be a worthy shelter until they discover the half-eaten, still-alive inhabitants in the basement, clearly being used as a food source for the twisted clan that lives there. And, of course, is just about to come home.

The Road is a two-character piece in which we're asked to play the third; to run alongside this driven man and his frightened child until we run out of road. Viggo Mortensen gives the role his physical all and his performance is the best thing about the piece. Sadly, Smit-McPhee was not up to the challenge. The young actor and Hillcoat make the mistake of playing the son as too whiny and needy for the audience to want to travel with for over two hours. If I heard the kid scream "Poppa!" one more time, I was going to start rooting for the cannibals.

Ultimately, even with McCarthy's nihilism and arguable misanthropy, The Road is a film about how we must cling to our humanity even in the face of unspeakable misery. It's a noble theme, but one that is difficult to carry an entire film without becoming repetitive and simply unenjoyable. There are elements of The Road to admire – Viggo's performance, McCarthy’s themes – but they are balanced but simply bad decisions – the whiny characterization of "The Boy," a drastically-overdone score, and more. When a film asks as much of its audience as this one does – you won't see a more oppressively bleak movie all year – then even a few speed bumps can make it a road not worth taking.

Rating: TWO BONES

Reviewed by Brian Tallerico (MovieRetriever.com Film Critic)