If I never knew that Hillcoat directed The Proposition and if I didn't know any info about who directed The Road, I would've never guessed that the same guy directed both films. The film lacks viscerality, and its portrayal of the difficulty of the characters' situation was lacking. Even the basement scene was suprisingly ineffectual for me. The process of scoping out the locations, getting to the locations was either condensed or left out of the film. What made the book an intriguing read for me was that it was both a world of bleakness and love (between father and son). The film gave the dramatization of the former short shrift. The music was really middling and Hillcoat used too much of it.

Landscape and physical environment-wise, I think Sokurov or Tarr would've knocked it out of the fuckin' park. As for viscerality and physicality, I think Cronenberg or McQueen would've done much better.

Also, at 111 minutes, the film was too short. Scenes were too condensed.

There are stuff I liked about the film. First, the few reviews I read after the TIFF screening, never mentioned Duvall or Williams if I recall correctly. Why not? I thought they were fuckin' amazing. As of now, both are making my SLA ballot with Williams taking the top spot. The cinematography was very good. And some scenes got pretty strong physical responses from me. Oh, and Mortensen has one of the greatest cinematica faces of all time.

Not a waste of money and I still wouldn't have waited to see it on DVD. Just...very underwhelming. Should've been a masterpiece.