halfway there

One of the best books I've picked up this year was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It was a concept made ridiculous by many a film - a post-apocalyptic world - but Mr McCarthy made it real, grim, frightening. It gave me a chill reading it, warmed only by the tender relationship of the father and son making their way through desolation. In short, I love it.

So I was a bit iffy when I read that it was being made into a movie, because adapting a book into a movie is often a misguided, tragic act. But coming across this article in The New York Times today, I felt somewhat encouraged. It largely has to do with the way the writer described the dynamic between Viggo Mortensen - who plays the father - and Kodi Smit-McPhee - playing the son. Here's an extract -

"In the novel the father and son have a relationship that is both tender and businesslike; they’re trying to survive against great odds, after all, and there isn’t much time for small talk. Both on and off the set Mr. Mortensen and his co-star behaved much the same way. In Erie, while Kodi’s father was away for a bit, Mr. Mortensen, who has a grown son of his own, moved from his suite to Kodi’s room, a double, where they jumped on the beds together. During filming Mr. Mortensen, protective of Kodi, worried, for example, about yanking or dragging him too hard, but also treated him as an equal, a fellow professional who happened to have a very different way of working."

And this -

"While waiting, Mr. Mortensen came back and fretfully studied the monitor. Kodi, meanwhile, dug for sand beetles, showing an especially plump one to Mr. Mortensen.

"Looks like good eatin’,” Mr. Mortensen said, and it wasn’t entirely clear whether he was joking or talking as a man who was supposed to be starving."

There's something about the exchange that strongly reminded me of the book, and it's got me pretty excited the movie. This is unlike the reaction I had when I heard about Atonement. I loved the book, but I didn't have the same keen urge to catch the movie the way I feel now.

'The Road' still taken from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/movies/27road.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin