The Road- my short analogy

I saw The Road on Wednesday and was not unfamiliar about the movie, as I have read the book more than a couple of times, so I knew what I was in for. But unlike what I was led to believe going in, this adaptation is NOT verbatim to the book. I'd say it's 85% genuine to the Pulitzer Prize winner by Cormac McCarthy.

In all honesty, I was more taken with the book. Something about the film loses it's edge onscreen. I still thought it was fine filmmaking by John Hillcoat but there were some liberties taken with the dialogue that were not in the book. And a couple of scenes in the book that were pretty frightening were left out, that I thought were very key when reading the book that stuck with me. I think those two key scenes would have given the movie more of a horrific feeling to it.

I feel most of the actors did a good job, especially Viggo Mortensen as The Man. Robert Duvall's several minutes of time he has is poignant. The cinematography is solid but what should really deserve a Oscar nomination is the art direction and production design. There was very minimal green screen shooting involved and what you see on screen is real, and looks it. See Roland Emmerich, you don't need to use a green screen the entire time to film a post apocalyptic disaster film.

As of right now, the film seems to be getting a split right down the middle reaction from people that have seen it. For that, I think it is will more of an uphill battle to earn one of the ten slots for a Best Picture nomination. Personally for me, it's in my top 5, but there are more film's yet to be seen in the next month.

Oscar predictions ? I'd be very surprised if it doesn't get Oscar nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Art Direction. I think Viggo's chances are on the outside looking in, but you just never know.