Did not make it...


I thought it was a decent attempt but I almost feel they should not have called it On the Road but rather a story based on characters created by Jack Kerouac.

Basically I think because for most of us this book is a personal experience and you create your own connection with it there is a great deal of difficulty in translating this to film. What you sort of get is the way the filmmakers connected with the story and characters...and that's fine...but it feels like there could be thousands of versions On the Road told through the voices of each of the readers and maybe none would satisfy others.

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[deleted]

I agree with you up to a point. What killed this film for me was the actor playing Dean/Neal. No matter how you read any of Kerouac's books (or other books, like those by Tom Wolfe), or documentaries about Cassady, Dean/Neal/Cody is a frenetic ball of energy, bursting at the seams to experience life and at turns charming (conning) people in ways that eventually drive most of them away.

None of that came across the screen from the guy playing Dean in this film. He was slow-speaking, laconic at times, and lacked intensity.

Thomas Jane captured Neal Cassady wonderfully in "The Last Time I Committed Suicide," so it CAN be done on film. It just didn't happen here.

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