A
film review by Elizabeth Weitzman, on Oct 31, 2013.
One day I will find
the right words,
Jack Kerouac wrote, and they will be
simple. And perhaps one day a director will find the right way to adapt his
words, and the solution will seem simple. But not today.
Today
we are faced with yet another well-meaning but unsuccessful attempt to
translate Beat poetry into big-screen beauty. Kerouac (portrayed by Jean-Marc Barr) published Big Sur in 1962, after his overwhelming
popularity drove him to hide out in California with pals Lawrence Ferlinghetti
(Anthony Edwards) and Neal Cassady (Josh Lucas). Barr drones much of the
text in voice-over, while director Michael
Polish trains his camera on spectacular Big Sur scenery.
The
men drink, proclaim and complain in impressionistic, though rarely memorable,
fashion. Kate Bosworth and Radha Mitchell are lovelorn and lovely
as the perpetually overlooked partners. But with Kerouac declaring that the only thing that matters is the
conceptions in my own mind, we’re still left waiting for the filmmaker who
can take us there.
Labels:
drama, Fifties, Sixties
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