The Road

***1/2

The End Less Travelled


          For decades now, cinema has been fascinated by humanity's fear of the end of the world.  Unfortunately, the nature of this fascination has had more to do with the subject's potential in bringing in box office success, than the emotional core found within this grave fear.  With such greedy exploitation, Hollywood has forever romanticized humanity's greatest fear: the end of all living things.  It has been a long time coming for a filmmaker to step outside the box of this clichéd genre, and finally create something real and humane with this bleak subject matter.  With The Road (adapted by Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name), director John Hillcoat has made one of the most credible post-apocalyptic movies in recent memory.

          Much of this credit is due to the outstanding lead performance of Viggo Mortensen, and the stark cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe.  The story takes place in post-apocalyptic times, but unlike many other Hollywood predecessors, this film gives no explanation for the exact cause of its apocalyptic environment.  Instead, The Road focuses on the relationship between a father (Mortensen) and his son (newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee), as they travel episodically from one desolate area to another, merely trying to survive another hour.  Mortensen gives an extraordinary Oscar-worthy performance, as he once again steps outside his heroic Lord of the Rings-like typecast, and strips his character down to the bare necessitates of life and basic human survival.

          Coupling Mortensen's gritty performance is the film's cinematography.  With no need for epic explosions or in-your-face special effects, Aguirresarobe's cinematography relies heavily on the natural elements of light and shadow.  His images are as bleak as the story itself, and reflect in perfect unison the film's discernment of that which truly matter in life.  The majority of our everyday lives are filled with superficial codings, with scarcely a day passing by when all of life's true necessities are recognized.  The Road juxtaposes images of skulls, empty cans of food and drink, naked and starved human beings, with those of abandoned ships, decrepit buildings, rusted cars, and so on.  Despite the bleakness of such imagery, these pictures help form the film’s wakeup call.

          However, as great as Mortensen is as the father, McPhee is equally successful at portraying a ‘cute’, whiny 12-year old boy.  Since The Road exhibits such an enormous scope of gloom, it is imperative for the story to involve at least a few moments of human innocence.  However, almost every time McPhee opens his mouth to speak, one begins to expect an upcoming cry of whining and complaining.  The frequency of such complaining inevitably becomes distracting from the film's more tactful handling of human anguish.

          Found within this episodic journey of father and son, is a back story of the mother's gradual departure from the family and its plight.  The mother is played by Charlize Theron, who gives an honest and empathic performance of a mother in conflict, as she tries to make the impossible choice of either surrendering herself over to the family's likely demise, or choosing survival through hope.  Her scenes have the potential for being heart-wrenchingly powerful, but they have such little screen time that whenever they do transpire, they end up falling flat emotionally.  For such a key character, in terms of shaping the father's driving ambitions for his son's survival, it is unfortunate that she is not given more screen time.

          The film's other major shortcoming is its climax.  After revealing such a gritty and credible portrait of the end of the world, the film's climatic scene between father and son seems relatively insulting to the intelligence and prudence of its audience.  Through falling back on the melodramatic dialogue of yesteryear's disaster flicks, director Hillcoat loses touch with his unique vision of an end less travelled.  When all is said and done, however, The Road will be able to hold its head high as at least one film that tried to be real, even while the majority of other such films took the easy route.

Slumdog Millionaire

** 1/2

An Unfortunate Fairy Tale


          Once upon a reality, there was a need for fantasy. Through a shared pursuance of redemption, human beings have created ingenious methods for enduring suffering. Whether it is through performing physical activity, or turning to more creative outlets such as the human intellect, we as a species are consistently looking outside of our realities in order to enhance the quality of our everyday experiences. This tool for survival could very well have been the same source that helped spark the storytelling genres of fantasy/science fiction, as well as the ageless legends and fairy tales that have been passed down from generation to generation.

          There is, of course, a potential danger in using such survival techniques; dangers, which tend to spawn from the inevitable rebound effect of denying one's own personal reality. In real life, this all-too common scenario can harvest tragic consequences. This same situation constructed within the confines of cinema, however, tends to yield itself towards a more offensive exploitation. It is within this precise consequence of romantic flair, where "Slumdog Millionaire" wrecks its own train of heart.

          "Slumdog" tells the story of a young Indian man who is living in Mumbai and finds himself in an inquisition of sorts, as he attempts to justify the legitimacy of his recent success on India's version of the popular TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" The movie begins with our protagonist (Jamal K. Malik, performed with an earnest sense of yearning by Dev Patel) having long surpassed the expected benchmark of achievement for the show's contestants. For the Indian authorities however, this accomplishment by Jamal is all the more astonishing, given the nature of Jamal's background while growing up. It is known that Jamal lived the majority of his young life growing up in some of the poorest, most violent and most diseased ridden areas in all of India. As such, it is this reality of Jamal's upbringing that gives the authorities the 'justification' for their thorough inquiry.

          Here we find ourselves back in the reality of customizing human suffering. Yet once more we find ourselves within the clutches of pure Hollywood fantasy. For this is yet another movie in a long line of factory like productions, where the depraved realities of horrific living conditions take a subordinate step backwards, in order to let in the stench of implausible delusions. Remarkably, each prominent experience of suffering that Jamal endured as a child and teenager had within it a real life scenario that reflected the correct answers needed for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"  As Jamal sifts through his own past in order to find the correct answers for the TV show, we the audience are supposed to buy in to the absurdity of this implausible plot.
  
          Yes it is true, that director Danny Boyle was not afraid to reveal the harrowing conditions found underneath the rapid development of India's middle to upper class. Still, it is the unfortunate path which Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy take, that only leads to the complete negation of "Slumdog"'s theme and message. Let's face it: the combination of some of the world's most robust economies hitting a low point not seen since The Great Depression, and the continuance of countless wars and lands ravaged by famine, would seem to lend itself well to a movie like "Slumdog Millionaire". With its story of rags to riches contained within a boundless sense of epic proportions, this movie would seem to be a panacea.

          It is all very well to learn the lifelong art form of embracing the light in the ugliest of experiences, but to make an attempt of this sort through such an improbable dream that is "Slumdog Millionaire" is not only counter-productive, but futile. Being able to acquire a sense of wisdom and profundity through one's own suffering, has been a courageous achievement witnessed time and again throughout human history. Yet, if we are to believe in the possibility of translating our moments of suffering into the correct answers for world issues on a hit TV game show like "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", then we might as well stop believing in the possibility of redemption altogether. One of the biggest stretches of credulity for the audience is that Jamal's quest of being on this television show is based on his dreams of reconnecting with his childhood love. He actually believes that she will be watching the telecast, but the plot is not convincing enough to give these dreams any real hope of becoming successful. Since most of us go to the movies in order to escape (thus enhance) our everyday lives, one must ask what the point is of making such a movie as "Slumdog Millionaire"? This film clearly does not work on a literal level yet it remains equally pointless on any metaphorical scale. It may have its endearing moments from time to time, but it ends up being no more substantial than the ridiculous Bollywood music video, found in the end credits.

And now for the million-dollar question: How could I possibly write such a polarizing commentary on a movie that won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director?

Answer: A) I am far from being an Academy Awards scholar.
B) I copied and pasted Roger Ebert's review of "Slumdog
Millionaire".
C) I've never even seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire".
I took just one look at its title, and began writing.



D) "It was destiny."