Walter Salles (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries) is a brave man to tackle bringing a book once considered unfilmable to the screen. But Salles has a particular affinity for road movies and he effectively captures the purity of the open highway, revelling in the beauty of the American landscape.

On the Road is full of youthful energy while remaining faithful to Kerouac’s improvisatory, somewhat cautionary tale of a group of friends finding and losing their way in life. Sal Paradise (Control’s Sam Riley) is an aspiring French- Canadian writer living in 1940s New York whose life changes completely when he meets the charismatic bounder Dean Moriarty (Garett Hedlund) and his moody child-bride Marylou (Kristen Stewart). Thrown into the mix is young poet Carlo Marx (Tom Sturridge) who urges Sal to join them all out West. Thirsting for freedom, they head off in search of the world, of new encounters, and of themselves.

The project took eight years to get off the ground, but with a cast that reads like a who’s who of young Hollywood it will no doubt introduce a whole new audience to Kerouac's classic Beat Generation novel. The performances, set design and soundtrack successfully recreate a period of history when heady freedom sat dangerously close to a life of struggle and destitution.