The Road (R) (2009)

Director John Hillcoat manages to paint a grim picture of life after the world undergoes an unexplained, apocalyptic disaster. He creates the mood and the scenery using basically one Crayon, gray. There is no brightness, no glimmer of hope, only the most basic survival maneuvers.
The threat of cannibalism looms early in the film and lurks in every frame thereafter. The terror of facing the unknown, the emptiness and the lack of hope permeate the film. The script, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, tells of a father (Viggo Mortenson) and his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who travel the abandoned highways and byways of America following a catastrophe of monumental proportions. The scenes of devastation and the horrors of survival are unsettling. Never do you take time to consider what happened to cause the devastation, all energy is focused on struggling to just walk the next mile.
Great performances, but a very grim plot, create mixed feelings upon exiting the theater. Relief best describes the emotional state that I experienced after viewing the film. Exhausted comes in as close second. 3