The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

The Road is a fine film.

This is mostly due to it being based on a fine book, but it was also put together with love. I see that, back then, I was very doubtful that the movie would be any good. I think I was both right and wrong. The Road is a good viewing, but it does lose a bit of something that makes the book so good.

That basic lost feeling is that of desolation, despair, and constantly running time. You get the feeling of how long it takes to get anywhere, and how horrible and pointless it all is in the book much, much more than you do in the movie. Little montages between key scenes just don’t display that quite as much as the long descriptions in the book, and it’s that feeling that really helps to add to the hopeless atmosphere of the book.

The other thing, and one we talked about a lot while watching it, is how Hollywood loves to put in a major female character, even in a story without one. They really do play up the man’s wife in the movie, much more than in the book. However, none of it really felt out of place. He is described as having flashbacks while dreaming all the time. It makes sense to play those out in the movie a bit more in movie form. They worked. They didn’t detract.

Other than these changes, though, it was really accurate to the book, and it made for a good film. All the actors did acting, and did it well. The boy was played by a really good child actor who pulled the difficult role off well. It hit all the major beats of the book, and was very true to them. It was also depressing as fuck, just like the book. Basically, it was exactly how you’d want such a book adaptation to be. Anyone could “get” it, and it was true for fans.

That makes for a boring review, I guess, but it was true. That’s how I felt about it. It was a really great adaptation. It didn’t make me jump up and down for joy, but I appreciated that it was put together well. That’s all I could ask for, and I’m glad I checked it out. If you liked the idea of the book, but don’t like all those words and lack of quotation marks, then you’re good to go on watching this. Go right ahead. I don’t mind at all.