The Rover Movie Review

Apparently Robert Pattinson can act...

The Rover is directed by David Michod and stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson and is a post apocalyptic drama which follows Guy Pearce's character, who is on a quest to reclaim his car which was stolen from him. The movie takes place 10 years after a "collapse" but certain details are left out. How did the "collapse" start? Unimportant. What's it like in countries other than Australia? Unimportant. The film narratively leaves out these details so you can discover the bleakness of this world in which the movie takes place in for yourself.

I have to believe that this movie was marketed poorly because when I saw it today the theatre was fairly empty before at least half of the audience walked out. This movie is not an action blockbuster, it's a slow drama with a meditative pace which focuses on the characters. Some may call this boring, but the film's slow pace hooked me from the start and I enjoyed The Rover from then on.

The movie also works as a thriller and one scene in particular in the film's finale had me on the edge of my seat. It was immersive, intense and the dramatic moments truly had that shock impact because of the film's meditative build up.

The directing from David Michod is very good as well and he does a great job at concentrating on our two main characters instead of concentrating time on a bullshit backstory on the apocalypse. The film also looks good; lighting and focus were 2 things I was very impressed with.

Guy Pearce is fantastic in the role and plays a damaged, hardened badass brilliantly to the point where absolutely every single minor detail was perfected. I can't fault him in any way, shape or form and I think he should play more characters like this. However Robert Pattinson who played Edward Cullen in those shitty Twilight movies is the scene stealer. He plays a "halfwit" and he does it perfectly.

My main problem with the film though is the character development. Don't get me wrong it does happen, but the film leaves it too late. While the actors were performing well, the characters themselves were pretty one dimensional for three quarters of the movie and I did find it hard to latch on to them for a long time.

The musical choices also really annoyed me and added nothing to the film creatively. There are a few aimless scenes and the rest of the cast are completely expendable, but overall I thought The Rover was a very good drama with some great performances:


Rating - B


1 sentence summary - 2 great performances come from a movie which has well paced drama and effective thrills!


Thanks for reading,
Matt