ON THE ROAD

This adventure/drama is a powerful portrait of the 1950s Beat Generation. It is a portrait that, despite the money and drug-induced hardships, makes the audience wish they had been a part of something so wild and free. Director, Walter Salles, and the high quality cast, including Garrett Hedlund (Dean Moriarty), Sam Riley (Sal Paradise), Kirsten Stewart (Marylou), and Kirsten Dunst (Camille), has made this film as brilliant as the book. To some the film may come across as being aimless and without plot but this mirrors the stream-of-consciousness writing style that is true to the author, Jack Kerouac, and also to the restless characters within his story who are full of wanderlust. Read the book first! *****