Something has happened and the world isn’t what it once was.  In this desolate land where everything is burning and cannibalism is rampant a man (Viggo Mortenson) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are travelling south to the coast to try and find a better place to survive.

When you think of the end of the world you expect so many things from a film. However, what you expect the least of all is a tale of a father and son walking across the country trying to survive.  They hit many hurdles along the way as they try to move without being noticed.  With gangs of starving cannibals roaming the streets after years of this apocalypse and only a revolver and two bullets in his arsenal it’s a game of survival for this family of two.

What strikes me the most fetching about this film is the dedication to the simplistic world it provides us.  In a world where everyone is either dead or hanging on for survival it’s always more about what isn’t there than what is.  What is there is a lot of debris and ‘leftovers’ on the road side that were used by the people before them.  However, just like you would expect it makes it easier to pick out things coming when they do since there is such calm in this world from a lack of people.  So as soon as a truck is coming it’s easily detected, not only by the father but also us as an audience.  I admire not only the story, but the director (John Hillcoat) for this remarkable decision.

The thing that keeps the movie moving along though is not this fantastic plot, but the points at which we enter and exit these two people’s lives.  It’s almost as if we enter as they are reaching a location and something interesting or monumental is occurring to them.  Like for example when they meet the old man (Robert Duvall) and even though he seems harmless enough the father refuses to help him in any way.  Even though it’s the logical decision, in order to keep him and his son’s lives preserved, it’s not the humane decision.  That’s where the son’s role shows it need.  It’s not only to give the father a purpose in life but to show him where his skin may be getting a little too thick.  Is surviving this scenario worth it if when we get to the light at the end of the tunnel and can no longer recognize ourselves?

The acting in this film is worthy of Academy Awards without a doubt.  Not only is Viggo Mortenson brilliant as this struggling father, but Kodi Smit-McPhee is also brilliant as a child who’s never known a world other than this.  I remember always asking myself how would I feel if the grass was purple, all I knew was that the grass was purple.  I probably would end up asking myself what if the grass was green.  So this child is looking at this world and just knows nothing else.  The only link that the child has to the world that was before is through his father who tells him stories sometimes, but I can imagine those stories looking like dreams that we see in films.

One thing that I loved more than most, which I’ve noticed in a lot of films recently, are the dreams that we see.  These are visions of before now when the father was with his wife (Charlize Theron).  Sometimes we see them during the end of the world and sometimes before.  The despair on the mother’s face as she sees what has happened to the world and the world that she has brought her child into is so honest that I don’t think that if it was anymore honest we would all be crying.

My only problem with the film is a criticism that is heaped on all book-to-film adaptations.  It isn’t as good as the book.  Where it fails to meet the mark that the predecessor made is in how it took it’s time.  Now many may say as I have before that we don’t always have all the time in the world when watching a film, but this movie is only 100 minutes roughly and I felt that the film could’ve added an extra 30 minutes or so just to get everything you needed to make it as brilliant as the book.  One scene where it especially required an extra ten minutes or so would be when we meet the thief (Michael K. Williams).  A man comes along and steals all of our main characters belongings.  In the book it becomes the massive moment when the father is desperately looking and tracking this man, but on film it went by so quickly that you never felt any real suspense as to whether we would find him or not.  It felt so brushed over as were a few other moments that it was wasted.

Overall the film is a brilliant addition to the genre and even though some may not like its less than action packed story they will eventually have to admit its dedication to its purpose.  It brings family values into a world where it may not be so prudent to do so.

VERDICT: IT’S A LOW PRIORITY BUY, BUT DEFINITELY RENT IT AT THE VERY LEAST

IMDB says 7.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 75%

I say 8.5/10