The Rover starring Robert Pattinson - film review

David Michod's latest film starring Robert Pattinson has a mood we’ve seen and felt before, in Mad Max, The Road and countless other speculative fictions
Gangster: Robert Pattinson as Rey, abandoned by his gang in the apocalyptic Outback
Guy Lodge18 August 2014

There's a startling moment two-thirds into The Rover, when the soundtrack — hitherto a lowering blend of grunts, gunfire and ominous Outback buzzing — breaks into the fizzy bubblegum bounce of Pretty Girl Rock. It's a music cue so discordant that you may suspect a technical glitch, until director David Michod cuts to the delicious sight of Robert Pattinson in a darkened car, singing along to the oddly apt chorus: "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful."

It’s a witty gag, suggesting what random cultural artefacts might endure in a desolate post-apocalyptic landscape. It’s also the only moment of humour or self-awareness in an otherwise dour, inert vision of the future — a disappointing follow-up to Michod’s cracking 2010 debut, Animal Kingdom.

The story, such as it is, could be scrawled with an index finger on a dusty windscreen. Guy Pearce is a taciturn former soldier (never named on screen, though the credits list him as Eric) grim-facedly subsisting in a barren corner of Australia laid waste by an unspecified global routing referred to only as “the collapse”. In what has become a violent, every-man-for-himself environment, a trio of deadbeats steal his car after crashing their own. Eric gives terrifyingly persistent chase, unsure of his destination until he runs into Rey (Pattinson, gurning with notable commitment), the gang’s abandoned, mentally impaired fourth member. Under duress, Rey agrees to lead Eric to his quarry and... well, that’s it, really.

The true motivation behind Eric’s ferocious pursuit is held back until the very last shot, while the two men’s reluctant collaboration never blooms into a discernible relationship. Amid the ample revving of engines and rattle of bullets, the film’s own narrative motor is idle.

The absence of stakes or tension may be the point, to some extent: Michod’s doomsday forecast is of a world where nihilism has won and where there is nothing left to hope for or care about. Why, then, should Eric’s quest be any different? Still, that’s a pretty hollow premise on which to build a film, even one as well performed and constructed as this. With its parched cinematography and decayed production design, The Rover doesn’t want for atmosphere, though it’s a mood we’ve seen and felt before, in Mad Max, The Road and countless other speculative fictions. With little else to engage us, what’s most arresting about Michod’s film is also what’s most familiar.

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