Feeling too festive this holiday season? Here's the cure!: "The Road"

Funny ... I haven't heard this fun little tale pop up in the banter about big holiday movies. Maybe because the story is enough to make you simply give up and hang with the in-laws instead.

I was late to the game when it came to reading the Cormac McCarthy novel "The Road." The big reason was I pretty much think of McCarthy as the pretty horses guy, and that didn't do much for me. True, I thought the movie version of "No Country for Old Men" was good, and I may read the book at some point. But it wasn't until I looked more closely at the story of "The Road" and saw the trailer that I figured the book was worth a try.

Good thing, since it's the best book I read in 2009. Yes, besting even "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake." Based on that distinction, I was reasonably excited about the movie, which has seemed to saunter into theaters amid the "Avatar" and "Twilight" noise.

Our story: A man and his young son try to survive in the post-apocalyptic world, trudging along a road to get to the coast. Why? Why not? There's really nothing else to live for. We don't know what happened, but it was several years earlier, it was very bad, and it left the world dead. Witness the bare trees -- at least, of those standing -- the slate sky, the abandoned buildings, cars, etc. Of the few people who remain, many have turned on each other, and let's just say that those South American rugby players who crashed in the Andes had the right idea.

So yeah, it's a little grim. And grimy. The man (Viggo Mortensen) and boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) walk on, looking for food, dodging hazards and making discoveries -- terrifying and uplifting. Meanwhile, we see earlier times through flashbacks featuring the woman of the house (Charlize Theron). Whatever left the world in this state didn't set well with her, it becomes clear.

It's a simple story, and director John Hillcoat -- who helmed the little-known but worth-seeing "The Proposition" -- paints the bleak picture in spades. Along with the washed-out colors and permanent layers of dirt, ash and who-knows-what, there are the sounds of a dying world: falling trees, earthquakes, random creaks and cracks. In this environment, every sound resonates, include silence.

I don't want to diverge into a book review here, but it's worth noting that McCarthy does a masterful job of just plowing ahead with the simple story and letting some of the larger themes -- mainly what this all means when it comes to hope and spirituality -- just kind of trickle out. In the movie, this was a little trickier, and it only kind of works.

The film version is largely faithful; I can't think of any big changes. But despite the potential with a doomed future with almost everyone gone and those who remain being rather unsavory, this is no "I Am Legend," "Mad Max," "28 Days Later," et al. That's not a bad thing, but it's not all good. In short, this is a tough story to turn into a home run, no matter how much you nail the visuals.

Still, a decent effort, and even knowing what was coming didn't keep me from wanting to see it through. Viggo is good but has been better at least a few times, Smit-McPhee a little less so. Our supporting players include Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Omar from "The Wire" and the always-compelling Garret Dillahunt, and they're perfectly fine, too. Nothing's wrong with "The Road," but it really could go only so far to begin with. Hmmm ... there's probably a Frost poem somewhere in there.