luacheia99

Lua Cheia · @luacheia99

14th Jul 2012 from Twitlonger

My reviews and thoughts about the movie #OTR #NaEstrada #KristenStewart and all

First I have to say I am not in any means a writer, I tend to be prolix and get lost in side thoughts. The language is also a problem... If put thoughts in words is difficult, you can imagine how difficult is to put it in other language than your native one. So... Have patience, be nice and follow me! :P

I never have had contact with the book On The Road before this Walter Salles project. During the dictatorship it was banned, so it was not influential for me during my teens. I bought the scroll ebook version and I have to say... It was a very difficult reading! I got bored and anxious! After a time I gave up and bought an audio version of the scroll version. THAT was amazing! I love to walk around the lagoon on weekends (7.5km), 2 hours of endless walking... lol The audio version did the trick and got me interested in it. Finally last week I ended listen it. Concluded that I past the age for it be a influence and only saw it as a important book to read. I got why it is so influential to youngsters in that age where you question everything and everyone. I thought a raw portrait of a post war generation with the same ingredients that 1920 generation had.

I read a lot about it, saw a lot of interviews, articles and critics of the book and the movie (mostly French, some aussie and American). When the Brazilians articles, interviews and movie critics started come out I got very happy to see another tone. A more positive tone and a sense that Walter had done something very intimated, very raw, very human, not a adaptation but a personal vision... But some still talking that he still did not made the movie stand by itself.

So I went to the movie with a mind open and waiting for the excellency that is traditionally Walter's works.

Had the pleasure of seen it with a friend who read it at 18 and is just a little younger than me, who said she felt some influenced by it in her late teens. She re-read it 2 years ago. I also went with a huge Kristen fan, a 14 years old, who had preferred not to read the book before the movie for not be influenced by it and not even read critics or articles. Interesting company, different approaches but the same satisfaction! lol

We arrived at the first screening at the day, some people of my age, man and woman, a group of 5 or 6 teens (certainly Kristen fans :)). We became very pleased by the mixed company. The raction during the movie was a show apart! A lot of "WOW" and a lot of laughs!

The air conditional of the theater was very low and it was very cold in there.

From the moment the movie started until its ended I barely noted that I was frozen! lol

I didn't feel the movie long or boring at all... The close shots and the open views are both incredibly good. Walter did an amazing job getting subtitle details that shows and say more than works with handheld shots.

The movie is not about "On The Road The book" and also it is not about "On The Road The scroll version book", it is Walter Salles vision of be youth and everything that it brings to the scene. The selfishness, the craziness, the curiosity for the unknown, the anxiety to put out all you are feeling and share it with others, the feeling that you need to do something but you don't know what, the desire of be different, of do something that makes difference, the desire of be creative, the desire of taste and prove all at the same time. Some are followers, some open roads. All of it brings happiness, friendship, auto-affirmation but angst, pain, deception, feeling of failure. Walter talks essential about the human condition of the after WWII young generation that saw all the reactionary values be destroyed by the war and they went out just asking questions, tasting and living each moment as it would be the last one. A highly creative time in poetry, paint, and music! In the end he showed that it is a period in our lives and it pass and you have to get along with it, if not, if you get stuck and don't grow, you will be left behind. It is life!

The movie is an intense character driven movie, based on the scroll version, as well the biographies, interviews, tapes, 5 years of making documentary, books, musics, paints... but just based... because it is clear that he, Riveras and the actors deconstructed all and improvised mostly all!
Most have being said about Garrett acting and Kristen's also but all the cast is amazing. Sam Riley was a huge surprise for me! He got me since the first second of the movie and it was him that I followed until the end! Tom did an amazing job!!! Never had seen him in anything before and man... He has gotten my attention now! Alice, Viggo, Elizabeth, Amy, Kirsten were incredible! Their moments are lessons of work of the art of acting! Garrett is really incredible! Of course his character is the one who gives the actor the most chance to show his chops but he took the chance and brought it on! His Dean is everything Walter wanted to transmit in his vision of Youth and The Beats. In some moments he seems hypnotized in a tranzy. Now... Kristen! Kristen disappeared! The only WOMAN in the silver screen was Marylou! She got the voice tone, she got the moves... I have to be honest with you guys... I was very disturbed by that actress who was soooo open and sexual! I was not expecting at all this feeling! It was like see a daughter... It was very disturbing... I could not recognized that woman! I think it is the most huge compliment I could give to her! She really became something that I could not see any trace of her! She really brought Lu Anne to the screen and show that Lu Annes was the most of them who lived the Beat spirit! She was not there following the men, she was there on her own therms. A free spirit, without preconception or fear or angst but just curious and living! She was doing what she wanted and the moment she decided she was done with that period of her life, she said I done, it is not the future that I want and left. Kristen's improvisation on that scene in the car that Walter talks about a lot is really amazing! Outstanding!

I don't agree with the critics that say it is long. It is not! Is it sometimes episodic? Yes it is, but every one of the scenes had to be there, because it was in the book and these characters had a huge importance on the Beat Generation. Forget all you have read, because it is Walter's vision and its sustained by its self as a piece of work! It is very beautiful, amazingly acted, shows human reactions, deceptions, angsty, dreams, happiness, pain, friendship, creativity, beauty, colour, tones! Shows a moment in history but most of all shows the real people on who was based the characters. Full of life and creativity but selfish and in-consequent!

It is not a movie that will be appreciated well by the Americans... or any one who has a hardcore personal vision of On The Road. I can understand them but I can't understand the French critics who thought ir was meeh movie. I can understand young people feeling it is boring and long and don't getting it, because they are young and can't understand yet what Salles is trying to pass...

I don't think it has real chance for the actors or the movie in the American Awards. I hope I'm wrong... Kristen certainly don't have! Her performance is OUSTANDING but not a award type! You will see why...

Well I said I was prolix, didn't I? lol

I pretend to see it tomorrow again! It is a lot to digest in just one time! lol

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