The Rover

The main anti-hero, Guy Pearce, races his way through post-apocalyptic Australia following a stolen car and is assisted by a mentally ill Robert Pattinson. If he at least uttered a few words at the beginning and explained how important this car is to him, the whole plot would immediately cease to exist. The pace is slow and there is barely an hour of actual plot in the film, but somehow it was dragged it out to almost double the runtime. Pattinson's character is much more interesting than Pearson's, and even Pattinson's performance is better. Pearce just frowns the entire time and the viewer wonders why he is doing what he is doing. I probably wouldn't recommend the film to post-apocalyptic fans either, because if a headline didn't appear at the beginning explaining that the film took place ten years after an unidentified catastrophe, I wouldn't even realize that it was supposed to be post-apocalyptic. (07/11/2014)

With the atmosphere of its Australian outback in a realistic (i.e. non-fantasy) post-apocalyptic form with a lot of bleak social goings-on, The Rover is a superbly engaging thriller. Furthermore, I really like these reticent opuses in which we get to know the characters just a bit at a time. But the more sophisticated The Rover gets, the more futile it seems in some of its would-be philosophical dialogue, and the more unsatisfying its ending becomes. It’s as if it admitted that it was shit (and considered that to be its creative strength). (05/08/2020)

Quentin Tarantino called this film the best post-apocalyptic film since the original Mad Max. And I say congratulations to David Michôd for being able to produce such a hundred-percent concentrate of first-class boredom! The Rover is a kind of self-infatuated blob in which you will wait in vain for some twist and regretfully think about Mad Max and its epic moments. At least, the final scene makes sense and prevents a total fail. But, you, Quentin, please watch your mouth! [KVIFF 2014] (04/23/2018)

"Rover" is definitely an interesting film, although it depends a lot on whether you enjoy slow, contemplative movies where every second feels like three seconds in reality. It drags on, but the story being told is not completely bad in itself. It just doesn't impress. I'm a fan of Robert Pattinson, and here he proves that he has stepped out of his box and is a capable actor. Guy Pearce has proven this a long time ago, he just tends to play similar types too often. (09/18/2014)

(49th KVIFF) The tempo is easy-going, but the atmosphere is gripping, with the dirt, the desert, the hirsute hero, the endless Australian roads, the isolated buildings and the redneck post-apocalyptic population. Pearce and Pattinson are great. And it’s got some balls, as the midget will tell you. So, pretty satisfied, though Tarantino’s hype (OMG! OMG! the best post-apocalyptic movie since Mad Max) was, as expected, exaggerated, if not downright bollocks, as it’s usual with him. The final twist is (especially for me, those who know me will understand) utterly absurd, though the protagonist’s prior behaviour gives it at least some motivation. (07/08/2014)