And so the apocalypse continues. Hollywood wants to make sure we “get it”—even though times are tough, hey, it could be worse. Hollywood even wants our kids to get it, in films like the cutely apocalyptic “9” or the romantic fable “Wall-E.” We have the uber apocalyptic “2012” and the spiritually uplifting (sort of) “Knowing”—and I’m still waiting for “Apocalypse: The Musical.”

But first, let’s break down the future to its bleakest dramatic elements. In John Hillcoat’s “The Road” (based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name) there are few lighthearted moments, few scenes of warmth or tenderness. Director Hillcoat wants no doubt about this particular road to the future: Life will not be fun. Death, in fact, will seem like a blessing.

Having said this, let me add: “The Road” is fairly decent stuff, a pretty good dramatic jaunt into an utterly abysmal future.

For anyone thinking “too bleak to watch,” I have two words: “Shindler’s List.” Awardwinning film. Rave reviews. Box office bonanza. So yes, heartbreaking drama can attract an audience. No, “The Road” isn’t for every taste, but for those fascinated by bare-bones, “what-if” drama, it’s probably worth a look.

An unnamed father and son (very nicely acted by Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) wander along a road after an unexplained catastrophe has turned the world cold and inhospitable. Many of the survivors have already taken their own lives. Others have turned to cannibalism. The two wanderers are cautiously heading south, toward the warmer coast, hoping to find their salvation.

For me, the problem with “The Road” concerns the es sence of the character Mortensen portrays. While portending to his young son to be one of “the good guys, the man shows little mercy to others they encounter.

The father’s love for his son is unquestionable, and they’ve managed to survive thus far on instinct alone. Yet in this scenario of breathtaking bleakness, of mankind’s reduction to horrific base instincts, one has to ask what “The Road” is really about.

By depicting this particular family, we are riding on the shoulders of a post-apocalyptic “everyman.”

But why these two particular travelers? The spirit, the nobility in their journey is missing—certainly at least in the father’s actions. “The Road” is a tragedy of immense proportions, but tragedy without nobility is simply tragedy.

I’m playing devil’s advocate here, but I’m not certain of the film’s screen-worthiness.

Our greatest literary tragedies, from long before Shakespeare to modern literature, have usually contained a modicum of hope, of heroism in the face of adversity.

I found few such moments along “The Road,” and the father’s unwillingness to confront even the possibility of others seeking friendship directly affects the outcome of the story.

Consider James Cameron’s “Titanic” for a moment. (And nothing implies catastrophe quite as aptly as a film titled “Titanic.”) Cameron could have chosen any number of characters to depict aboard the doomed ship—but by choosing Jack and Rose, two young lovers steaming toward a new world filled with hope and promise, we’re hooked on both their motives and their frantic decisions in the face of certain death.

Had Cameron selected some boiler room stoker or a cantankerous old codger in steerage, our investment in them, as characters, and in the film itself would have been much less likely.

Perhaps in this era of realitybased voyeurism, “The Road” is exactly the kind of film we should expect. It’s certainly a cautionary tale that asks a perplexing question: Is humanity really capable of spiraling down into such ruthless primitivism?

The book, by the way, is far more gruesome, and the acts depicted in the film are mostly implied. We don’t witness cannibalism, but we’re very aware of its presence.

And yet, having been raised on sci-fi, having wondered through films like “The World, The Flesh and The Devil,” “The Quiet Earth” and “Children of Men,” all strangely compelling “what-if” scenarios of a future turned bleak, I admit to an odd fascination with “The Road.”

Although faint, there is a modicum of hope, a glimmer of assumption that humanity might indeed outgrow our incomprehensible appetite for destruction.

Hope enough, perhaps.