El Cazador

This film tells the story of a desperate and lonely man whose car is stolen. He goes to extreme lengths to recover his car, killing many people along the way.

"The Rover" is compared to "The Road", which I really enjoyed. "The Rover" tries to create the desolation and desperation in "The Road", but it doesn't quite work. Where the story is going is not clear in the film, and hence it looks as if Guy Pearce's character is a mad man going on a killing spree because someone has done him a little wrong. The pacing is super slow, and therefore it doesn't captivate my interest. Do the characters really need two minutes to walk from a car to a house? That is really dragging screen time unnecessarily.

The only redeeming feature is the performance of Robert Pattison. I thought he was just a pretty face that made it big because of a wildly popular series of films. In here, he gives a memorable as a mentally challenged young man. If only the rest of the film is as good as his performance!

The Rover is an anti-blockbuster mainly because of its rhythm : it is very slow, therefore preventing many people to stick to it while watching it.

What you get here is not some amusement but rather gives material to think. We're not escaping from existence, like with e.g. Gravity, Hunger Games or whatever acclaimed propaganda. And it is quite disturbing as the more we go on watching the movie, the more we confront with some reflections about our time : there's no more gods, no more laws and we're getting increasingly isolated. Just the gruesome reality. People are striving to survive and protect what is theirs (always material things), though remains some hints of optimism - and Pattinson is playing quite well on this regard.

The world is reeling from an economic melt down. Society hangs on precariously in a state of lawlessness. Following a botched bank robbery a man's car is stolen. This is his story of getting his car back.

The main character is hardened, non communicative and solely dedicated to the task of getting his car back. What follows is a violent road movie with one of the most unlikable, grumpiest heroes of all time.

Despite being a total douche I did start to warm to the character. This is a clear indication of how well made the movie is. Guy Pierce is great, which is just as well as he is tasked with shouldering most of the load.

The world is grubby, squalid and dangerous. Yet it has an element of realism about it. The police desperately try to keep order in a world where most people have all but given up.

An enjoyable watch with a beautifully bitter ending.

In an extremely violent post-apocalyptic world where most human kindness and decency seems to have disappeared, a lone drifter hunts down a group of men who stole his car. That is, in a nutshell, the story of 'The Rover'.

The film is in many ways extremely nihilistic. There is little dialogue, the story takes place in the harsh and empty Australian desert, most characters are tough and tight-lipped, and the violence is abundant. This is at the same time the strength and the weakness of the film.

Watching it is an experience, many scenes are gripping and intense. But at times, I wished this would be a more 'normal' film, with more back story, more plot development, more dialogue. At the end, its slowness and weirdness got on my nerves. It is a very atmospheric film: the general mood of lawlessness, moral decay, and hopelessness is very captivating. But that in itself is not enough to carry the film. I would have liked a bit more explanation about why people act like they do.

One final remark: I was impressed by Robert Pattinson's acting. He plays a young man who seems to be not quite right in his head - an extremely demanding role.

THE ROVER is a quirky and interesting little Australian movie detailing the collapse of society after a major economic collapse (thus making it an extremely timely movie in these financially-wary years). That it manages to successfully depict a post-apocalyptic world of sorts on what is obviously a limited budget is testament to the skill of the director and his crew, particularly the location manager and set designer.

This is a slow and sombre production with shades of SNOWTOWN and THE ROAD, although unlike MACBETH, which I watched the day before, it's never boring or dull. The story is sparse and drawn out, as this is a real slow burner of a movie, and yet at the same time it keeps you gripped to the screen. It helps that the ever-underrated Guy Pearce is cast in the lead role and gives a typically engrossing portrayal of a flawed man with a single-minded purpose.

There are some brief action sequences in this film and even something approaching a car chase, but it's not really an action movie. It's more of a suspense thriller with the tension gradually building as things approach a devastating climax. And, it surprises me to admit it, by far the best thing in the film is the acting of the young lead, Robert Pattinson. This guy is completely unrecognisable as the guy who played Edward Cullen in the TWILIGHT series. He's quite brilliant, giving a wonderfully mannered and sympathetic performance of a simple man who ends up being used and abused by everyone around him, and his performance comes out of nowhere. It's as though Pattinson was bored with the plastic TWILIGHT films and wanted to do something the polar opposite in order to prove his worth as an actor. Well, he successfully does that, and then some; his performance is outstanding, and made the film for me.