On the Road

"On the Road" is not an un-filmable book.  The events in it are pretty straight forward.  It's easy to take things that happen and film them.  It is impossible, however, to capture the magic of the words on the page.  It's not the "story" in the book that makes it an important classic.  It's the stream-of-consciousness, jazzy prose.

The result of this film adaptation is a rambling road trip movie.  Now, it's not a bad movie.  It's actually a pretty good movie, but it does not compare to the poetry of Jack Kerouac's book.  But that's it for book talk.  Let's look at "On the Road" as a movie alone.

Director Walter Salles has a loose style of filming.  Very rough but not amateurish.  I'm sure that this "raw" directing was thought to be a perfect match for the "raw" world of Kerouac's travels.  I would've preferred something a bit smoother.  I also think the success of his Che Guevara road trip movie, "The Motorcycle Diaries," helped secure him this historic figure road trip movie.

Most of the quality of "On the Road" is in the performances.  Sam Riley is good as Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac.  His raspy voice is great for the copious voice-over.  Kirsten Dunst is phenomenal as Dean Moriarty's second wife.  I usually like Dunst but her turns in "On the Road," "Melancholia," and "Bachelorette" have rekindled my enthusiasm.  Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams appear briefly as Bull Lee/William S. Burroughs and his wife respectively.  They are marvelous in their limited screen time, especially Mortensen.  Please, someone make a Burroughs movie and cast them!

But two actors deserve special mention (for very different reasons): Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart.  Let's start with Hedlund who plays Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady.  I never felt one way or the other about Hedlund.  He was just some guy in some movies I saw.  Not anymore.  Here he delivers an incredible Oscar caliber performance.  Hedlund gives his all to the role without hamming it up.  Moriarty is the embodiment of the enthusiasm for life and freedom that Kerouac was seeking, yet he is a lost, sad, broken child.  Every note Hedlund hits is flawless and he almost single-handedly elevates the film.  "On the Road" loses a lot of its energy when Hedlund is not onscreen.

Now for Kristen Stewart.  She's awful.  In every film I've ever seen her in, she's little better than a mannequin with a pained expression on its face.  Not much changes for "On the Road."  She does appear to be trying a little harder, but she still can't seem to muster up the range necessary to convey the myriad emotions her character is experiencing.  In the hands of a better actress, her role could've been the most heartbreaking role of the year.  Instead, you forget her character every time she's not on camera.  I think Stewart realized that she needed to take a serious role to be taken seriously.  But she can't act so she just takes her clothes off.  This is the opposite of what makes people take you seriously.  I'm not complaining.  I'm just baffled by the whole thing.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed "On the Road."  It's a quality film that showcases some great actors (and Kristen Stewart too).  It's awkwardly sexual at times but never unnecessarily so.  If you're in the mood for a look at the counter culture of the late 1940s, then this is a pretty good way to spend a couple hours.

7 out of 10