The Road

Not the film to watch if you're a bit down in the dumps. I knew it was about a father and son's struggle to survive after some unexplained apocalyptic kerfuffle and that nob jokes and topless song and dance routines were unlikely (it's just taken me five goes to spell 'unlikely' - odd), but it's unremittingly bleak in style and tone.

Despite the monochrome palette though, some of the landscapes are starkly beautiful and brilliantly rendered (lots of excellent work by several effects houses I spotted in the credits). The visual look of the film is so compelling that it almost helps lift the mood in between worrying about what godawful situation the boy and his Dad are going to run into next. Excellent work by Viggy Mortenson as usual. He's pretty much your go-to man for stoic intensity. I'd want him on my team if it was all kicking off. Also me was impressed by Robert Duvall's almost unrecognisable cameo as 'nice old dude messily eating fruit from a tin'.

Good but grim. Was actually quite a relief to help the wife sort out the laundry straight after I'd watched it - the sort of mundane chore you would yearn for in a world where you spend all your time dodging cannibals and stapling your leg back together.