On the Road
(France/Brazil, 124 min.)
Dir. Walter Salles, Writ. Diego Rivera
Starring: Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart,
Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Elisabeth Moss.
On the Road is an
admirable effort to bring the great American novel – perhaps the greatest
American novel – to the screen. Unfortunately, though, this effort by director
Walter Salles and screenwriter Diego Rivera, the team behind The Motorcycle Diaries, veers into
adaptation hell from the first minute that it translates the work by Jack
Kerouac for the screen. On the Road
is by no means a bad film, but it reveals the danger in bringing such a
canonical work to the screen.
At the core of the story is aspiring writer Sal Paradise,
who is working on a novel as he travels around America to experience the world
and perform first hand research with his own eyes. Throughout Sal’s journey, he
meets up with his best friend Dean Moriarty (played by Garrett Hedlund from Tron and Country Strong, who easily gives the standout performance of the
ensemble). Dean is a drifter, both in the literal and figurative sense. The trip
around America shows the directionlessness of young Americans in the post-war
era. Driving around with nowhere to go and nowhere to be, the journey of Sal
and Dean provides a symbol for Americans looking for change at a time when
change was needed.
That sense of urgency is probably what made the novel speak
to generation when it was published in 1957. It still connects with readers today
because Sal’s poetic ramblings contain an anger and vividness that rings true
no matter the era in which they are spoken. This film, however, just doesn’t
seem to have much to say, or it simply can’t find the words to say it.
The style of the film is rather inconsistent. Sal offers
some of the novels most memorable lines in sporadic voiceover narration, which
might have helped the film dispense with some of the narrative babble and
remain coherent had Rivera/Salles used it throughout. Some of the finer
moments, however, are simply the languid shots of the friends driving across
the road with frequent intercuts to the landscape or the expanse of the asphalt
road continuing into the horizon. At the best of times, the film channels the
jazzy beat of the era and literary movement Kerouac launched by telling the
story in a quick tempo that is matched to a lively score: the trip to the
Mexican whorehouse stands out as a notable sequence, no matter how brief it is.
When the film uses the elements of cinema, rather than Kerouac’s own tongue, it
finds its own voice in moments that allow viewers to experience the energy and
vitality of Sal and Dean’s journey. The emotional sensations of these scenes
connect with viewers regardless of whether they have read the novel.
The importance of On
the Road is evident in the high roster of stars attached to the film, as is
the film’s reluctance to cut Kerouac’s work. Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams,
Elisabeth Moss, Steve Buscemi, Alice Braga, and Terrence Howard are just some
of the talents that make a cameo appearance along the road trip, but the film
never leaves much of a chance for viewers to see how these characters
illuminate a sense of America circa 1950. Even major characters, such as Dean’s
on-and-off wife Marylou (played by Kristen Stewart), receive very little to do.
Stewart is fine in the few scenes that afford Marylou any drama, but she is
reduced to background noise for much of the film. Kirsten Dunst receives an
ample part as Dean’s other wife, Camille, and creates some of the strongest
scenes in the film. The ensemble is good overall, though, with Hedlund
excelling and Riley doing okay in the limited lead role, for Sal Paradise is
mostly an observer in the film.
On the Road has
moments of greatness, but it never really jives on the whole. It looks great
and sounds great, so it certainly has the feel of the era. However, it doesn’t
say much about the era, so it all comes off as aimless drifting. Not a whole
lot happens in Kerouac’s novel, but one would hardly say it’s about nothing.
Rating: ★★½ (out of ★★★★★)