On the Road 2012

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. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: If there were an On the Road museum, this could be the elaborate diorama at its center. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "On the Road" is something of a sprawling mess, but then so is the novel. Read more

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. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: This, and a certain lack of what one could call narrative thrust, makes 'On the Road' a strange, diffuse experience, offering occasional glimpses of genuine beauty ... Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: It all seems - dare I say it? - of little consequence. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's neither the first nor the best road trip that Mr. Salles has brought to the screen. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: All that's missing is Kerouac's voice -- the reason the book is worth reading. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: They don't seem like real people savoring their youth, but rather like illustrations in a book about how the Beats behaved. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Director Walter Salles' film is fairly faithful to the source material. It's not going to start a movement, though. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: In the end, ''On the Road'' remains paved over. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Against all odds, a surprisingly effective movie. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: While Kerouac's odyssey lacks conventional narrative or novelistic beats (though it comes with plenty of the other kind), the restlessness of the prose has its own cinematic allure. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's all rather exhausting, as opposed to exhilarating. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's not a wreck of a movie; it's not a sleek race car either. But there's heat to be felt here. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: A respectful, tuned-in approach Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: While the film's dramatic impact is variable, visually and aurally it is a constant pleasure. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Salles has lovingly crafted a poetic, sensitive, achingly romantic version of the Kerouac book that captures the evanescence of its characters' existence and the purity of their rebellious hunger for the essence of life. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: A pleasant but undistinguished adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel about himself and his Beat friends in the late forties. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's no madness here, no burning, no desperate search for transcendence, no sense of characters on a heroic, continent-crossing quest. Just another sticky, stinky story of boys, being boys. And refusing to become men. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: What's ultimately wrong with On The Road is that the film envisions everyone Sal meets as nothing but fodder. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Salles has made an admirable effort, which - while no roman candle - can be appreciated for its honest ambitions. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: What's best about the film are its quick jumps from one depravity to the next as jazz rambles on the soundtrack: Youth is a candle to be burned at both ends, with (as it was once said about Bob Dylan) a blowtorch in the middle. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: In Salles, screenwriter Jose Rivera and company's effort to get the details right, they only get so far. And it's not quite far enough. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Well-intentioned and well-made but self-indulgent exercise tries really hard but falls short. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Although Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" has been praised as a milestone in American literature, this film version brings into question how much of a story it really offers. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A dash of Tarantino might have juiced up Walter Salles' wrongheadedly well-mannered take on Jack Kerouac's 1957 Beat Generation landmark. On the Road feels tight and constricted. Read more

David Haglund, Slate: On the Road is not a great movie, but it's a pretty interesting work of literary criticism. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It took more than half a century, but Jack Kerouac's autobiographical cult novel of bohemian youth in postwar America has reached the screen in wonderful form. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Notwithstanding the characters' spiritual camaraderie, Salles' emphasizes the hard physical labor and loneliness in Sal's story, including the jittery rigors of the writing process. Read more

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. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Sorry, On the Road just doesn't travel well. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The film is a handsomely photographed and competently cast work that does justice to Kerouac's concept of "the purity of the road." Yet there's still something maddeningly lacking about it. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Audiences may find reliving their own travel experiences during On the Road, enjoying the pretty scenery between the occasional nap and restroom break. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The rebel yell of 'On the Road' now sounds muted and even a little embarrassing. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Mostly feels like a group of Kerouac devotees performing a lifeless reenactment of prose that was better left on the page. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Despite the high level of craft here, it's an inadequate substitute for the thrilling, sustaining intelligence of Kerouac's voice. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Another "primitive" postwar antique repurposed for boutique sale. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Walter Salles's warm but strangely staid adaptation of a piece of literature that was never meant to be tamed as cinema. Read more