One last thought on THE ROAD (2009)
Posted by Daniel Metz
Yesterday while I saw Up in the Air (review forthcoming above), they ran a trailer for Crazy Heart which features Robert Duvall in a supporting role. That reminded me of the character Duvall played in The Road. He was a traveling old man, similar in his positive morality to the two heroes of the film. Like Viggo Mortensen’s character, he too had a son. Unfortunately for our aged character, his son is gone, and he begins to cry as he tells Mortensen that he doesn’t want to talk about how his son came to be raped and eaten (or maybe he killed his own son to avoid that fate?).
This was a missed opportunity for a great cinema moment. How wonderful would it have been if the old man was played by Mortensen himself, heavily made up? To literally see a future self, or at least an alternate self, would be a troubling and stunning moment. He is already intended to be seen as a similar but alternative character. Had Mortensen played him, it would have been powerful indeed.
