"You should never stop thinking about a life you've taken. That's the price you pay for taking it."
Aussie director David Michod gained a reputation for his gritty crime drama Animal Kingdom and his long awaited follow-up has finally arrived. The Rover could be described as a post-apocalyptic thriller involving cars and the dusty Australian outback. Images of Mad Max will immediately pop in your head, but The Rover doesn't take this possible future to those extremes. Michod's sophomore effort looks like something that could feasibly occur without too much difficulty. Its set ten years after a global economic collapse and, without question, those on the fringes of society have been affected the worst.
After a robbery gone wrong, Henry (Scoot McNairy) has been shot in the leg and his cohorts have forced him to leave behind his younger brother Rey (Robert Pattinson). The gang has an accident on the road and grabs the nearest car they see. Unfortunately for them, that car belongs to a gruff and scruffy loner played by Guy Pearce. In the credits, he's referred to as Eric, but no one calls him that and he never bothers to introduce himself. He's the proverbial man with no name, cut from the same cloth as Clint Eastwood. Eric is determined to get his damn car back, come hell or high water. Along the way, he runs into Rey and convinces him, in not-so-polite fashion, to help him find Henry.
Michod and collaborator Joel Edgerton have done an incredible job in creating the world of The Rover. This is a movie that was shot on film and the cinematography by Natasha Braier captures the sun-baked desolation of the outback and every layer of sweat and grime that cakes its inhabitants. Michod never delves into bulky exposition, so we never get a full explanation of the hows and whys, which is perfectly fine. We do get glimpses of just how things have changed. Wary vendors will only accept American dollars and a kindly doctor (Susan Prior) keeps stray dogs locked in cages because she's afraid people will kill them for food. When Eric strolls into an old woman's home, she doesn't react with shock or anger. Instead, she nonchalantly pimps out her teenage grandson.
There's a pervasive sense of gloom and nihilism to The Rover. The outback has become a largely lawless place where even the scant soldiers that patrol the area don't particular care about justice. They just want to get to paid. Eric is most definitely not a hero, evidenced by the casual way in which he kills people.
Pearce is perfectly cast as the taciturn protagonist. It's clear the thieves have chosen the wrong car to jack from someone quickly revealed as an Australian Terminator. He's unrelenting, but there's a deeper sense of tragedy to the character. Robert Pattinson, inexorably linked to the Twilight franchise, puts away any notions of sparkly vampires with his turn as the mentally challenged Rey. This is a character that can be tricky to perform. To quote Tropic Thunder, you can't go full-on retard. Yes, Pattinson's performance is mannered and he pushes the Southern accent a little too hard. However, he's believable and complex in the role. At times, his Rey is almost heartbreaking as someone so simple-minded that he couldn't possibly survive alone in such a harsh environment. At other times, he reveals himself to be more than capable of sudden violence.
The Rover doesn’t quite hit it right out of the park. The movie hinges on a couple scenes where the characters must behave foolishly just to move the plot forward. There's no real explanation as to why Henry's crew don't just drive off with their truck and Eric's car. At the very least, they could have slashed his tires.
As he did in Animal Kingdom, Michod utilizes a pop song as an ironic counterpoint to the bleakness portrayed in the film. Lit solely by the dashboard light in his car, Rey waits and tries singing along to Keri Hilson's "Pretty Girl Rock." The scene hearkens back to happier times when sitting in your car and listening to the radio was a luxury.
Rating: *** (*****)
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