Review: Stewart, Hedlund and Riley On The Road... to nowhere
Based on the iconic Beat Generation novel by Jack Kerouac, On The Road stars Sam Riley, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund in a stream-of-consciousness road trip through forties America, fuelled by sex, drugs and jazz, and populated by free-spirited young beatniks living art which imitates life which imitates art...
I have this personal policy where if a film is based on a book I will not watch it until Ive read that book, and recent examples like One Day, Never Let Me Go, Precious and The Hunger Games, solidify that belief: books are, in my opinion, far better than their translations onto the big screen (although the latter two titles did give it a good go).
On rare occasion, however, I have gone to watch a film when I havent read the book or play and have actually thoroughly enjoyed it; my most recent experience of this being Anna Karenina. So when I was given the chance to see On the Road I thought Id be fine without doing the homework. Oh how wrong I was...
To put it simply: this wasnt for me. I could not connect with a film that I personally thought was so wrapped up in its own story, it kind of forgot to explain a lot or provide some basic context. I felt like I was almost expected to know what was going on.
The story goes Sal Paradise (Sam Riley) is a writer looking for material, or something befitting his name, to inspire a book, and when he comes across Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), he begins a journey of abundant experiences.
Dean himself is a lost character: lost to his youth, to his freedom and to life itself. Hes indulgent in every way; in taking drugs, in having sex, in the music he loves and even in his new found friendship with Sal. As they travel together and he lures Sal into his carefree lifestyle, the! ir bond strengthens into something unbreakable, even when they separate. It commands a force that eventually pulls them back together, picking up from where they left off and continuing their road trip of life.
On the Road is more about Dean than it is Sal, and because of my lack of background knowledge, I dont know if it was intended that way. Its Sal the incarnation of Kerouac that tells the story, but it was Deans directionless wanderings that drew my attention.
Sal, the voyeur, almost fades into the background and is only used as a springboard for the introduction of Dean. I didnt remember much about him by the end, apart from his husky voiceover that must be noted as perfectly suited to the forties erasetting. It kind of reminded me of Richard Dreyfusss voice as The Writer/the older Gordy Lachance and its significance in Stand By Me.
By the close of the film I felt sorry for Dean; having a good time whatever the cost was his motto and he was nothing but a moth to the flame of drugs and sex. Portrayed as a man on a pedestal and put there by his friends he, in the end, was the sorry one. His life had amounted to nothing but broken relationships and nowhere to go.
The female characters, to me, were the only ones I was sure of in the sense that I understood their purpose in the film. Kristen Stewart as Deans very young wife, Marylou, albeit a strange and appealing (to the men in the film) character, utilised her natural awkwardness to inject some much needed hormones to avoid On the Road running on empty. Excuse the pun. And Kirsten Dunst as Camille brought heart to her performance, and her presence felt rounded and sure, with genuine pain when Dean toys with her emotions.
I wanted to like the film the trailer really sold it to me but instead I freefalled for two hours in a kind of dj-vu-Dawsons-Creek-daze, where everyone sounded like they were talking in some self-aware prose. I knew what they were saying but didnt understand why it was sai! d in tha t way. Real people dont really talk like that, yet thats how it was portrayed.
I really felt that I was missing something, and that something was probably the book. However, if you can get past the shaky free-hand camera filming (that made me feel sick in parts, it was so unsteady) and the need toidentify the plot in the film, then this could be for you. Hedlunds performance offered some consolation; he convinced me that he was Dean and you couldnt help but embrace and sympathise with his character when he was left with nothing. But I lost patience and gave up trying to understand.
For me, On the Roadwas far too long and winding a journey, that ultimately left me a bit car-sick, sorry.
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