56
Metascore
32 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75The PlaylistJames RocchiThe PlaylistJames RocchiIf there's one thing that wounds On the Road, it's that the film is full of things -- having sex, doing drugs, being free -- that are far more enjoyably experienced by one's self as opposed to watching other people enjoy them on screen.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyStewart, selected for Marylou five years ago on the basis of her striking debut in "Into the Wild," is perfect in the role, takes off her clothes more than once and nearly always seems to be breaking a sweat, which kicks the sexiness quotient up high.
- 60EmpireDamon WiseEmpireDamon WiseA decent, well-cast and mounted adaptation that hits all the right notes but plays them in a respectful, muted monotone.
- 60Total FilmJames MottramTotal FilmJames MottramIt may lose its way on occasions, but thanks to a committed cast and a script that captures the Kerouac vibe, Salles' adaptation never ends up on the road to nowhere.
- 60VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangEvocatively lensed, skillfully made and duly attentive to the mercurial qualities of its daunting source material, Walter Salles' picture pulses with youthful energy but feels overly calculated in its bid for spontaneity, attesting to the difficulty and perhaps futility of trying to reproduce Kerouac's literary lightning onscreen.
- On the Road is rich with evocative period atmosphere and anchored by a trio of compellingly lived-in performances from Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, and Kristen Stewart. Nevertheless, it's another staid adaptation that misses the forest for the trees and confuses people into thinking that some novels truly are "unfilmmable."
- 50Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierThe lack of a strong expository voice further simplifies the wealth of explicit sex Walter Salles dramatizes, much of it drawn from juicy swathes of Jack Kerouac's only recently published original scroll.
- 50Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversA dash of Tarantino might have juiced up Walter Salles' wrongheadedly well-mannered take on Jack Kerouac's 1957 Beat Generation landmark. Kerouac's semi-autobiographical novel comes to the screen looking good but feeling shallow.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawOn the Road does, ultimately, have a touching kind of sadness in showing how poor Dean is becoming just raw material for fiction, destined to be left behind as Sal becomes a New York big-shot. But this real sadness can't pierce or dissipate this movie's tiresome glow of self-congratulation.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichBest is Viggo Mortensen's William S. Burroughs proxy Old Bull Lee, holed up in a perspiration-saturated Louisiana mansion with a shell-shocked Amy Adams and a gas-huffing chamber at the ready.