Metacritic Movie Ratings
The Road Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 88

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  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.

  Read full review

• 88

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  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.

  Read full review

• 70

  out of 100

  The New York TimesA.O. Scott

  Engrossing and at times impressive, a pretty good movie that is disappointing to the extent that it could have been great. Is this the way the world ends? With polite applause?

  Read full review

• 70

  out of 100

  The Hollywood Reporter

  Director John Hillcoat has performed an admirable job of bringing Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen as an intact and haunting tale, even at the cost of sacrificing color, big scenes and standard Hollywood imagery of post-apocalyptic America.

  Read full review

• 67

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

  There's enough foreboding in America right now to make sitting through a movie such as The Road seem like one more heavy burden that, frankly, no one needs.

  Read full review

• 50

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan

  The Road is a road you'll wish hadn't been taken. Not because anything's been badly done, but because there's a serious imbalance in the complicated equation between what the film forces us to endure and what we end up receiving in return.

  Read full review

• 40

  out of 100

  VarietyTodd McCarthy

  Except for the physical aspects of this bleak odyssey by a father and son through a post-apocalyptic landscape, this long-delayed production falls dispiritingly short on every front.

  Read full review

See all The Road movie reviews at Metacritic.com