Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Rover Blu-ray Movie Review

Downer under.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 20, 2014

What is it about Australia that seems to make it such ripe territory for post-Apocalyptic dramas? When asked this question, many might instantly think of The Mad Max Trilogy, but as far back as the 1950s novelist Nevil Shute was depicting a somewhat more staid Australian reaction to a nuclear holocaust in his still chilling On the Beach. Even the decidedly cheeky Tank Girl’s source comic utilized the island nation as its locale, though the film didn’t really emphasize that fact very much. Remote, mysterious, alternately barren and lush, and at least partially populated by the descendants of some of Britain’s most notorious criminals, Australia has somehow become the “go to” continent for post-Apocalyptic fiction, and it serves that purpose once again in the 2014 film The Rover, an interesting if perhaps appropriately meandering film written and directed by David Michôd. An almost unrecognizable Guy Pearce portrays a loner named Eric, a scraggly looking character who spends most of the film trying to chase down a trio of thieves who have made off with his car. Along the way, he hooks up with Rey, the wounded (and perhaps mentally deficient) brother of one of the thieves, utilizing the simple minded man child to help track down the bad guys. Robert Pattinson is about as equally unrecognizable in this role as Pearce is in his. The film is largely a so-called “two hander”, though a number of tangential characters waft in and out at various times. Alternately strangely lyrical and almost grotesquely violent, The Rover at the very least offers a chance to both Pearce and Pattinson to break free of perceived typecasting and offer some really interesting, if occasionally bizarre, performances.

In terms of general ambience, The Rover is probably a bit closer to the reserved On the Beach than the often hyperbolic Mad Max films, though ironically from a purely tonal standpoint (not to mention its sometimes graphic violence), it probably veers closer to George Miller’s creation. Eric is in deed if not in fact a “road warrior” of sorts after his car is stolen. He manages to free the bad guys’ getaway SUV from some debris it’s ensconced in after a rather hilariously staged accident, and begins to give chase. In the meantime, Michôd cuts almost willy-nilly to scenes featuring a badly wounded Rey, who seems to be mere detritus left bleeding on the hardscrabble Australian dirt after some kind of botched robbery. It’s initially unclear what these disparate stories have to do with each other, but ultimately Michôd weaves them together, with Eric and Rey becoming both nemeses and halting allies as their road trip continues.

Michôd offers a weirdly peaceful environment through which Eric initially marauds. People are few and far between, and those that Eric does come into contact with often seem to have wandered in from a nearby Fellini film. In one of the film’s most shocking sequences, Eric, after having freed the villains’ vehicle from its crash site, sets out to find a weapon after his initial interaction with the thieves ends with him getting smacked down and threatened with a gun himself. He manages to find a squalid home with a bizarre older woman knitting in the half-dark who offers Eric “access” to a smooth skinned young man sitting almost zombie like in an outer room. Eric demurs that offer but finds a weird group of men in the kitchen, including a dwarf who offers to sell Eric a gun. The climax of this sequence is horrifying, more than adequately displaying the brutal efficiency of Eric in achieving his goals, but also leaving an unsettling vision of what this really “wild west” (and/or down under) world is like, where Darwinism isn’t a matter of mere theory, but a lifestyle that’s played out in increasingly desperate circumstances.

That gives The Rover a kind of unrelenting bleakness which makes the film a tough go at times, especially since Eric’s obsessive quest to reclaim his car seems peculiar, at least given the fact that he already has another vehicle at his beck and call. Eric also remains something of a cipher throughout the film, with not even the film’s denouement (which at least partially explains his wishes to get his car back) providing much in the way of true character exegesis. Rey is a bit more fleshed out, though Pattinson walks a fine line here where it’s not completely clear just how addlepated Rey really is. I half expected Rey to pull out a puppy and begin stroking its head, a la Lennie in Of Mice and Men, but at other times Rey seems to be more of a schemer than might initially be apparent.

Michôd, who seems busy amassing a spectacularly idiosyncratic filmography courtesy of such pieces as Animal Kingdom (which he wrote and directed) and Hesher (which he co-wrote), adds to his somewhat skewed perspective here. As with both of those films, the central characters are misfits with anti-social tendencies who attempt to wend their way through an unforgiving landscape (it’s one of Hesher’s conceits that that landscape is in fact a somewhat unlikely suburbia). Michôd casts an almost hypnotic, even quasi-hallucinatory, spell in The Rover, where at times both Eric and Rey seem to be sleepwalking through a waking dream, doing their best to contend with the devastated world in which they find themselves as well as each other. The Rover is a film that is probably more about the journey than the destination, as is perhaps appropriate given the film’s title. It’s hard to say something like “getting there is half the fun” with a film as harsh and depressing as this one, but there’s little doubt that Eric and Rey, as brought to life by Pearce and Pattinson, are often astonishingly visceral characters. Whether you’ll want to hitch a ride with them will probably depend on how much you require salvation and/or redemption to be part of your viewing experience. Michôd clearly asserts here that those elements become absolutely secondary when one is fighting for pure survival.

The Rover Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rover is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Liongate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This is a film actually shot on film, and there's a beautiful depth and texture to the imagery here that proves what an evocative medium this continues to be. While there are some issues with the range of light the camera is able to effectively capture, leaving some dark scenes a bit muddy looking, overall this is a really spectacular looking release, with deep, etched fine detail readily apparent in the stars' faces and a nicely burnished accounting of the almost alien looking Australian countryside. Colors are accurate looking if not especially vivid (by design). Contrast is also strong and stable, and the transfer suffers from no encoding anomalies.

The Rover Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Rover 's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track provides consistent if sometimes subtle immersion, courtesy of a wealth of well placed ambient environmental effects. There are sudden bursts of LFE in scenes like the riotous crash of the bad guys' car or some gunfire that erupts as the film progresses. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented and the film's interesting score, by Antony Partos, also sounds great and spills through the surrounds quite nicely.

The Rover Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Something Elemental: Making The Rover (1080p; 44:48) is an above average featurette with lots of behind the scenes footage and some good interviews with the cast and crew.

The Rover Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is frankly not that much in the destination in The Rover, and so the film, unlike its obsessive anti-hero, often seems a bit aimless and undercooked. But the basic storyline is incredibly compelling and Pearce and Pattinson offer really fascinating interpretations of two rather bizarre characters. Michôd has a fine eye for the unusual Australian landscape, and the film, while at times dramatically inert, is lyrical and horrifying in almost equal measure. Technical merits here are very strong, and The Rover comes Recommended.