- 9
...it'll leave you exhausted, emotionally spent and with much to ponder.
—Peter Paras E!
- 8
The Road evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy's novel. It is powerful, but for me lacks the same core of emotional feeling.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 8
...a haunting portrait of America as no country for old men or young...
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 8
...while Penhall's screenplay can't quite capture the blunt poetry of McCarthy's dialogue, this imperfect film ultimately delivers the original's saddened forcefulness with a brave and near-remarkable conviction.
—Chris Barsanti filmcritic.com
- 8
While the film is not as resonant as the novel, it is an honorable adaptation, capturing the essence of the bond between father and son. Their efforts to hold on to their better natures amid soul-killing conditions is stirring and life-affirming.
—Claudia Puig USA Today
- 7
...a grim world and a grim film, but one imbued with hopeful glints of humanity and a spare, effective performance by Mortensen.
—Leah Rozen People
- 6
...Hillcoat's film has divided critics on the international festival circuit. The one constant is the praise, rightly so, for Mortensen. On balance he makes the movie worth a tussle...
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 6
...The Road, for all its vivid desolation, remains a curiously unmoving experience...
—Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
- 6
The Road honors McCarthy's book with haunting pictures of the future's end ... but they tend to overwhelm the drama in the fore.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 6
...a faithful but pale imitation of a film adaptation...
—Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine
- 5
The only purpose I can detect in the smoldering wreckage is simple masochism; some people like to take a beating and others like to spend two hours cloaked in the most piteous distress. File The Road under apocalypse porn. Unlike Wall-E and Children of Men, though, this one offers no hope of renewal, no exit from the hell it so persuasively depicts.
—Kyle Smith New York Post
- 4
...a long, dull slog.
—J. Hoberman Village Voice