Another look at The Road at the NY Times by Charles McGrath:
“What’s moving and shocking about McCarthy’s book is that it’s so believable,” Mr. Hillcoat said. “So what we wanted is a kind of heightened realism, as opposed to the ‘Mad Max’ thing, which is all about high concept and spectacle. We’re trying to avoid the clichés of apocalypse and make this more like a natural disaster.” He imagined the characters less as “Mad Max”-ian freaks outfitted in outlandish biker wear, he added, than as homeless people. They wear scavenged, ill-fitting clothing and layers of plastic bags for insulation.
The script for “The Road,” by Joe Penhall, is for the most part extremely faithful to Mr. McCarthy’s story of a father and son traveling alone through this blighted landscape and trying to keep alive the idea of goodness and civilization — the fire, they call it. The script does enlarge and develop in flashback the role of the man’s wife (played by Charlize Theron), who disappears quite early from the novel, choosing suicide rather than what she imagines will be starvation or worse. And of course the script lacks Mr. McCarthy’s heightened, almost biblical narrative style.
Lots of good stuff in the piece, including how Viggo Mortensen stayed in character all day and how they found the kid (an Australian) to play the boy.  Link via FirstShowing.net.
Though admired by many I found The Proportion a poorly directed film (too in love with its own visual stylization, uneven in tone, and actors either all over the place in their characterizations or offering up caricatures). In Hillcoat’s favor this time, however, is a great lead actor who was born to play the part, a talented adaptor of literary work in Penhall, and the amazing source material. Xabier Aguirresarobe the cinematography will need to be in top form as will the art director as the look, feel, and texture of the film needs to work as a tone poem – a melancholy but poignant bruise (excuse the purple prose, not sure how else to put it).
Sorry, double posted. Will keep the second version below.