"The Rover" is a dry film, tough to chew and unpleasant to swallow.
The movie stars Guy Pearce as Eric, a broken man who wanders a post-apocalyptic Australian Outback. He's angry, assured, violent. A man with nothing to lose...except what he carries in his car's trunk. When his car is stolen, Eric embarks on a bloody path of retribution to recover what belongs to him.
Like I said, "The Rover" is a mixed experience. Parallels to "Mad Max" are appropriate superficially, but in this film, Max really is MAD. Pearce's performance is one of the highlights of the film. Eric, as a character, expresses little for much of the film. His first killing is a shocker, and each subsequent murder makes you question whether you should be rooting for him or against him. It's a disturbing dissonance that director / writer David Michôd explores perfectly. Robert Pattinson, as a simpleton who falls under Eric's influence, provides the soul of the film and an equally disturbing duality between innocence and violent cunning. If you want to see "the Rover" for the performances, you can't do much better.
Everything else about the film, however, is less effective. Michôd, whose brilliant "Animal Kingdom" won accolades, decides to channel his inner indie director. The problem is that the film's extreme characters don't lend themselves to an art-pop soundtrack, narrative ambiguity or languishing takes. The movie is so brutal, violent, and humorless that many production decisions feel counter to the texture of the movie. The characters run a beautiful line between good and evil; the film runs a much shakier line between what it is and what it wants to be.
Ultimately, "The Rover" made me reflect on the recent deluge of apocalypse films depicting a broken down society through the eyes of a violent loner, told with grim self-seriousness. It's a genre I appreciate, but one I'm increasingly frustrated by. There's only so much soul-searching I care about when the resolution comes by way of the gun, and when that gun is the ultimate answer. Violence in storytelling appeals to me most when it's used poetically, or a narrative means to an end. When violence is the entire purpose of a movie, as in "The Rover," I'm less entrapped.
If you want to watch two wonderful and under-appreciated actors play their hearts out, "The Rover" is a good bet. If you're looking for a movie that will make you feel something new, you might be disappointed.