Review of On the Road (2012) by Vince R — 14 Jan 2013

Jack Kerouac's classic book On The Road is considered to be one of the greatest of American literature and one of the famous writings to come from the Beat Generation, a movement of writers and poets who came from the 1940s and 50s. While the film adaptation, directed by Walter Salles, falls short of the book's greatness, I still found myself enjoying it. Like the book, the plot revolves around Jack Kerouac, going under the pen name Sal Paradise and his friendship with Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady). Sal is immediately attracted to the wildness and charisma of Dean and the film dives into their adventures of drugs, sexual experimentation and journeying across America.

While the book has large portions of Sal's solo treks across the country, the movie mainly focuses on his time with Dean, as well as with fellow angsty writer Carlo Marx (aka Allen Ginsberg). Sal Paradise himself is played by Sam Riley and does a find job playing the legendary writer. What stood out the most about the actor was his unique voice (check out the trailer voice over). Dean is portrayed by Garrett Hedlund, who wonderfully gets the character down as a selfish user - the type who is great to party with but would abandon you the moment things get rough or when he gets bored of you. Tom Sturridge plays Carlo Marx, probably the most sympathetic character in the film. As a writer in love with Dean, he is hopelessly depressed and clings to any amount of attention he can get from him. His performance has gotten me interested in finally giving "Howl" watch, in which James Franco portrayed Carlo Marx/Allen Ginsberg. Since "Howl" is quite recent, a comparison in their performances would be quite interesting.

Running at over 2 hours, the film may be a bit long for people not interested in the footloose lifestyle of hitchhike traveling, writing or the the Beat Generation in general. If you are just not familiar with the movement but love films set in the 1940s and 50s, this may interest you. But I would highly recommend the film to anyone who loved the book. Yes, it doesn't tell the entire tale or reach the novel's greatness, but the film was obviously made with good intentions when taking from the source material, which is something that can't always be said for other novel adaptations.