Watched this over the w/e (DVD) and thought it was an average post apolcalypse movie, with some fine performances, good filming and good effects. Tho' Viggo Mortensen plays the role to the hilt and is well supported by cameos from Robert Duval, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron as well as a solid performance from Kodi Smit-McPhee as the kid, the film fails for me to portray the theme except in characature, a sort of Waltons do post apocalyspse.
The movie is shot in grey/sepia tones reflecting the lack of life and lustre after the collapse of the world with flashbacks in vivid colour highlighting the bleakness. The central theme appears to be about carrying-on, carrying-on, staying doggedly fixed to anything that represents not giving up..............
and the outcome rewards that with Viggo getting the boy to the next stage of personal survival.
................but also not surrendering basic humanity to indiscriminate killing, canibalism etc.
The dirt and grime and the toll on the psyche were played well but not fully, I must say I thought the physical toll would have been better played with the loss of a few teeth! I also thought the lack of caution in the father and son a bit curious too, whilst Viggo's character showed some, the boy showed little and kids pick stuff up pretty quick at that age... see City of God for example.
For me the pair especially the kid would be getting pretty feral and the acts of humanity would have made their survival thus far improbable. I would have perferred to have seen a subtler depiction of acts of kindness, absence of malice or concessionary perhaps . I think it would have fit better, especially as these two had survived a number of years it seemed which I think might have required more wits and a harder edge.
Overall the movie showed despair but triumph through retention of what makes us human and dogged survival of the spirit to keep fighting.... I felt only that it could have been a bit more brutal to have been a really good depiction.