Overview
A decade after the collapse of the western world, Australia has become a lawless wasteland. As desperate outsiders pillage the country's precious mineral resources, taciturn Eric travels from town to town searching for signs of life.
The Rover takes place in the Australian outback, 10 years after ‘the collapse’. The normal rules of society have broken down, the law is no longer upheld, and individuals are beginning to come to terms with living in world where everyone seems to be free to be judge, jury and executioner if and when they feel like it. It sort of feels it may be taking place well after normal society collapsed, but still a while before it had become quite as bad as in the original Mad Max.
Guy Pearce plays Eric, whose car gets stolen by a gang, and for reasons unbeknown to the viewer, Eric is hell-bent to get his car back. The movie is about his chase, and we only find out why he cared so much right at the very end. Along the way, he picks up Rey, a character played by Robert Pattison and quite a different one from what we have come to expect of him. He does so well, even if at times he is rather hard to understand.
This is one of those movies that you don’t watch for the plot, and certainly not for the dialogue. The movie doesn’t give much (if anything) away so as to create a certain level of intriguing interest, without being so vague that you give up. I sort of liked it. If it had had a bit more depth to the plot it probably would have been a better film. Overall this is a movie to watch for the atmosphere.
6/10