Last week I saw the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I neglected writing this review earlier because I needed to think about it a little more and after doing so I’m still stuck with the same impressions. MaCarthy’s post apocalyptic story about a father and son trying to find life on a dying planet was so incredibly simple and eloquent, yet still full of emotion and incredible character development. It seemed like the perfect book to adapt into a feature length film due to its short length and relatively simple casting and sets.

Amidst everything there was to work with, The Road‘s director John Hillcoat managed to make a relatively forgettable movie. By no means is it terrible, on the contrary. In his own right Hillcoat has managed to make something entertaining however, it could have been so much more. Considering The Road’s main purpose is to develop the relationship between a father and his son I was a little surprised to find that I had developed little to no attachment to the two characters by the end of the film, let alone much sympathy.

The Road is a good example of an exceptional story turned into a movie by a very unexceptional director. You can tell that there is something great underneath it all that Hillcoat understands but can never quite convey.