Are they releasing a soundtrack to John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee?
Hard to say, but pretty much all the tracks from White Lunar, the new, two-disc compilation album of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ soundtrack work that feature music from “The Road,” have leaked (we gave you a first listen a few weeks ago).
Though it seems doubtful if a separate disc is coming out as even something like the soundtrack to “Up In The Air” (which hits in December) is already listed (without details) on Amazon and meanwhile there is no mention of a ‘Road’ score, so this might be all we’re going to get (and there might not be that much more as it is, “The Road,” uses a lot of the same themes repetitively, though not quite to the mantra-like effect of Ellis and Cave’s “Assassination of Jesse James” score).
Some of the soundtrack is ominous (“The Journey”), droney and minimalist (“The Father) and elegiac and lugubrious (the title track and our favorite, “The Beach,” which is essentially the song that plays in the climax of the film). “The Road” doesn’t hit theaters now until November 25 and it’s received some mixed reviews , but we saw it during TIFF and thought it was bleak, beautiful and heartwrenching. Though we’ll concede it’s not perfect either, but what is? It’s certainly worth paying to see in theaters, we’ll say that much. A bit of a harrowing experience, but better than something that’s completely toothless.