The Road (2009)

           Finally, the much anticipated film adaptation. Cormac McCarthy (b. 1933) won a Pulitzer Prize for his best selling novel about a nameless father and son who roam a post-apocalypse world pushing a grocery cart. A tarp and a pistol with two bullets are their only protection. They're traveling south toward the coast for warmth, although it's not at all clear what they could possibly do once they get there. This is a journey with a destination but no apparent purpose. They are some of the very few survivors of an unprecedented global catastrophe that has destroyed almost all life of any kind; we only learn that the clocks stopped at 1:17. Ash blankets the now colorless world and blows in the wind, the cold rain and the dirty snow. Their journey is one of death, darkness, and desolation. They are rightly paranoid of every other human being. Shriveled corpses, abandoned houses, and the remains of cannibalism are their daily lot. But it's still a world of deep love between the protective father and the innocent and apprehensive young son. No, he assures the anxious son, they would not eat people like "the bad guys." Yes, they are "the good guys." And by all means, he exhorts his son, do all you can to "carry the fire" in your heart.