David Michod’s The Rover is a brooding and intense journey into a graceless world, with Robert Pattinson delivering a fascinating, career defining performance in the process.
Tom Bumby writes- Australia has a good reputation in cinema, managing to frequently put out some really good films. From the Mad Max trilogy to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australia has a pretty good track record. Out now on Blu-Ray and DVD, The Rover is, at the heart of it, a film about a man and his car. But Mad Max this isn't. Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson star in what feels like director David Michôd's Australian version of The Road.
TF:
Australian writer/director David Michôd’s follow-up to his brilliant 2010 breakthrough, Animal Kingdom, is a film of awful aftermaths. Set in a ravaged but still-recognisable “Australia 10 years after the collapse” – an event barely spoken of, let alone explained – it concerns men who have reached the end of their rope: road warriors with no history, or hope.
Cut from the same cloth, Pearce and Pattinson are off-centre leading men who make interesting choices – and much better thesps than their looks might initially suggest. Equally, McNairy, who was deemed too old for Pattinson’s part, is one of the smartest character actors around (see Argo, Killing Them Softly, 12 Years A Slave... even Non-Stop). They’re all excellent here. An innocent, despite all the bloodshed, Pattinson’s Rey evokes memories of Toby Kebbell’s breakout turn as the mentally impaired Anthony in Shane Meadows’ Dead Man’s Shoes. Eric, meanwhile, is a grimacing ghost given a furious emptiness by Pearce. “I was a farmer, now I’m here,” he tells Rey, his backstory burning in his eyes, even if it never comes into focus before the divisive final scene.
Futility has rarely been so expertly portrayed, but even at a relatively trim 103 minutes, it’s wearing to have to fill in the gaps yourself.
Immersive but meandering, Michôd’s latest features great performances and gorgeous film craft, but its pleasures are elusive, and if you can’t find them in the scenery or the score, you might not find them at all.
ShockYa:
I was a big fan of David Michôd’s gritty crime movie “Animal Kingdom” from 2010. His follow up movie is the new Australian film “The Rover,” which looks amazing. The film is set in the future in the dangerous Australian Outback. Here are the first five minutes of the movie below.
“In a dangerous near future in the Australian desert, Eric (Pearce) has left everything behind, but when his last possession is stolen by a gang of dangerous criminals, Eric sets off on a hunt to find them. Along the journey he enlists the help of Rey (Pattinson), the naïve and injured member of the gang, who was left behind.”
