On the Road (2012)

Critic Reviews

• Jon Frosch, The Atlantic

  Salles brings evocative images, fresh faces, and some fine emotional shadings to the famous tale of friendship, love, sex, drugs, jazz, literature, and the American landscape.

• Justin Chang, Variety

  Despite the high level of craft here, it's an inadequate substitute for the thrilling, sustaining intelligence of Kerouac's voice.

• Manohla Dargis, New York Times

  Salles, an intelligent director whose films include "The Motorcycle Diaries," doesn't invest "On the Road" with the wildness it needs for its visual style, narrative approach and leads.

• Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

  What he doesn't give us - and what makes the book work - is Kerouac's bedazzled bohemian swoon. Without it, On the Road is a curiously remote experience, all reason and no rhyme.

• Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

  While the film's dramatic impact is variable, visually and aurally it is a constant pleasure.

• Kaleem Aftab, Independent

  Salles never overcomes the problem that so influential has the book been that the depictions which once seemed radical are now cliché.

• Scott Tobias, AV Club

  All that's missing is Kerouac's voice -- the reason the book is worth reading.

• Gail Tolley, The List

  What we're left with is a pleasant story of a group of friends on a road trip, not the captivating, liberating spirit of Kerouac's classic.

• Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

  Walter Salles' version is an honorable flop, a handsome film that tries hard, but ultimately doesn't convey the wild spirit and heartbeat that inform the text (and subtext) of Kerouac's iconic book.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  In many ways a pleasing film, the drama seems muted and what made the Beats seem extraordinary figures is only partially suggested.

• Kimberly Gadette, Doddle

  Derogatory dismissals of prosaic visual experiences have been around since, well, someone was bored to tears. To the poetic hyperbole of watching paint dry, or grass grow, we can add: watching a writer write.

• Charlie Lyne, Ultra Culture

  Salles's film revels in the spirit of adventure espoused by beatniks Sal and Dean but is also awake to their all-consuming selfishness, regularly undercutting the free-spirited chaos with a few much-needed reality checks.

• Eric D. Snider, Movies.com

  It doesn't capture the cadence and flow of Kerouac's writing -- doesn't really even try to -- and can only hint at the intangibles that made the novel so influential.

• Lee Marshall, Screen International

  Walter Salles' film is designer Kerouac, a slick product that deploys all the tools of the big-budget, award-chasing indie film.

• Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

  You can keep the Zeitgeist embalmed in myth and nostalgia for as long as you like, but to truly reinvigorate it you'll need a whole lot more than a whiskey-hued lens and a frontseat full of pretty faces.

• Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out Chicago

  This is On the Road as experienced by someone who exhibits no personality, a story of self-discovery in which there's no self to discover.

• James Rocchi, The Playlist

  Salles may have pulled off the achievement of faithfully adapting Kerouac's novel, but... you might find yourself wishing for a little less literary fidelity and a little more cinematic storytelling.

• Drew McWeeny, HitFix

  Salles certainly can't be faulted for how he approached it. His "On The Road" has a real heartbeat, and it's a trip worth making.

• Simon Gallagher, Film School Rejects

  Walter Salles' take is ultimately a failed attempt to adapt the unadaptable.

• Dave Calhoun, Time Out

  The rebel yell of 'On the Road' now sounds muted and even a little embarrassing.

Read all 20 critic reviews