On the Road

Underreported among the latest batch of Oscar nominations was the Bleakest Family Meal category. There are only two contenders: the pig's feet shared by mother and daughter in Precious and almost any of the meals shared by father and son in the Road.

Precious is the frontrunner. It might be that, in the Road, the entire world is either dead or dying, and father and son face an impossible future, but you know, at least they have each other. Even with out a global apocalypse, Precious contains no such lightness. Precious frying up two disgusting, hairy pig's feet for her monstrous sadist of a mother is one of the film's unforgettable images.

The Road is also memorable for food because of the use of brands. Since all plant and animal life is gone, the characters have nothing to feed on but preserved goods. An ageing can of coke has a cameo. Such a mundane product, found on street corners across the globe becomes a sacred relic in the film.

On the Guardian food blog there's a nice piece about product placement, on how companies are now happy to have their merchandise associated even with negative scenes. The writer missed some sparkling examples in the Road. One scene sees father and son stumble upon an underground bunker and find a treasure trove of Spam, Prince's tinned fruit, instant mashed potato and flavoured water.

Spam is so maligned that the makers must be delighted with the pr, even when it is literally eaten as the last meat left on earth. Prince's, perhaps not. Picture the slogan: "Fruit cocktail, for when unimaginable environmental catastrophe strikes."