An excerpt from my script review for The Road which will be available 12/13/20:
3.) Quality of Characters
Three dimensional personalities tucked behind generic names.
Man and Boy.
We’re with them for well over one hundred pages.
What are their real names? It doesn’t really matter.
Normally you’d be advised to avoid this sort of blandness, but with the limited cast, it works.
(Just as it did in the novel.)
The Man is a survivor in a world that, God knows why, he wants to raise his son in, and willing to do what it takes to protect them both.
The Boy is an innocent child with the unfortunate bad luck of being alive in a world that doesn’t reward innocence.
This works because as much as the Man tries to “toughen him up” because he himself is dying, there are times when we realize he’s just a kid.
(Like asking what “suicide” means.)
Those two personalities are reinforced, and sometimes come at odds, with every interaction they encounter during the script, whether dangerous or not.
Each has unique ways to look at the circumstances, staying true to their personalities.
One issue I had was the relationship between the Man and Woman.
Their marriage didn’t seem so great, but maybe we can blame that on the apocalypse.
Felt like “happy flashbacks” were forced in towards the end to say, “Hey! This is why they were together!”
It just felt really odd how she eventually simply peaces out, walking off into the darkness, and he’s okay with it.
But again, this is coming from a guy who consistently tells people all I need when the apocalypse comes is a gun and six bullets.
One for each member of my family, plus that sixth bullet if someone decides to run.
Morbid maybe, but think of the apocalyptic stories we’ve read/watched. Do you really want to live in a world like that?
I’d say “living” becomes a pretty relative term by then.
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