After watching You Gotta Believe, I was in the mood to find another father-son tear-jerker. I remember reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy in school. It was one of the few books that I actually read the entire way. I suppose I could relate to the little boy since at that time I was a little boy myself, well young adolescent. I watched the movie years ago when it was first released back in 2009, but I have not seen it since.
It was hard to believe how much of the story I didn’t remember. Now, it’s hard to know what in my memory was from the book and what was from the movie. Regardless, I still found myself drawn to the characters. Now that I have grown up and have children of my own, I find myself relating far more to the father in the story than the boy. Many times I kept thinking to myself, “I never would have acted that way” when the boy would do something … unwise.
The environment and the characters around were supposed to be the antagonists constantly causing problems for the two, I found it difficult not to feel like the boy was the antagonist at times. I kept reminding myself that he was just a child and that children make childish mistakes. Hell, I know plenty of adults that still do. But throughout it all, I wanted the Dad to win. He gave everything he had and did everything he could for his family, but received resistance at every step of the way.
Overall, the movie was good. I wonder if I would watch it again in 15 to 20 years if I would find myself relating more to the old man than the man or the boy. Either way, I do recommend watching this movie. Make sure you’re in the right mood for a story that is sad and down at literally every turn. Even when good things happen, they somehow turn out to be bad. It isn’t quite the tear-jerker I thought it was going to be. But I am still glad that I took a couple of hours and watched this one.
