Review of On the Road (2012) by Harry W — 23 Dec 2013

On The Road is so dull, spiritless and boring that the only thing it works as is an excuse for Kristen Stewart to barely act and yet give a decent performance.

On The Road fails to capture the spirit or heart of its novel and instead makes it a visual depiction of what someone not enjoying the novel would see, and by that I mean it is essentially just excessive waiting and little character or story development for viewers to really learn anything from. Whatever importance the novel has is surely not in On the Road, and so what to be entertained by is little.

Certain visual aspects are beneficial such as the cinematography and Kristen Stewart's breasts as well as the fact that the general atmosphere is good, but with On the Road its too easy to get bored fast and find little motivation to keep on watching.

The performances are good though, with Garrett Hedlund making a strong lead and Kristen Stewart giving a surprisingly good supporting role. Also, Terrence Howard makes a good appearance.

But Walter Salles, the director, doesn't give any evidence that he understands what On the Road is all about. He only seems to have picked up on the visual traits of it while reminding us that On The Road lacks an interesting premise or much else and fails to illuminate the novel or encourage viewers to read it.

On the Road isn't a good film and isn't likely to have you thinking it was based on a good film, so the only person you should show it to is to any Twilight fan so that they can watch a slightly better film featuring Kristen Stewart, as well as one of her better performances. Either that or any adolescent teenager that can sit through the while film just to see her topless. Either way I wouldn't recommend On the Road.