Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.
It may lose its way on occasions, but thanks to a committed cast and a script that captures the Kerouac vibe, Salles’ adaptation never ends up on the road to nowhere.
It’s a good-looking film, but strangely passionless, and at 137 mins it feels like a very long road.
It’s a better film than the book’s mythologised status really warrants.
It’s left to walk-on characters to liven things up.
The Kerouac mythology can be a chore if you don’t get it, of course, and I’ve often thought myself more or less immune. This alluring and honest treatment proved me wrong.
Film critics love to bang on about unfilmable novels. Sallas’s sexy, funky, freewheeling effort isn’t just a successful adaptation, it’s that rarest of cinematic delights: an improvement on the book.
The journey is supposed to count more than the destination. Both feel like a disappointment here.
This is serious filmmaking that deserves serious consideration, but it has to go down as a noble disappointment.
They said it was unfilmable. How right they were.
A decent, well-cast and mounted adaptation that hits all the right notes but plays them in a respectful, muted monotone.
Mostly stripped of Kerouac's incantatory prose, On the Road seems less a celebration of freedom than a mild chronicle of misbehaviour.
The Beat faithful won't feel betrayed by this honourable attempt; but while it's not a damp squib, it's no Roman candle.
Walter Salles's movie adaptation of Kerouac's beat classic is bold, affecting and inherently sad.
Kristen Stewart: 'I love Marylou. She jumps off the page and smacks you in the face.'
How Kerouac changed my life.
Garrett Hedlund
Walter Salles
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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